I TA'd that first course. I felt it was a bit of a disaster due, in part, to the book being used. The material jumped between introductory imperative constructs (conditional/loops/etc) and OOP philosophy much too quickly for an introductory course.
The main example that comes to mind was an early discussion of the differences between class members (i.e., static members) and instance members. While important, this topic was emphasized much too early in the book (right before or right after for loops) and in the lecture (which closely followed the book). This served to confuse a number of students that were still trying to grasp how methods work, regardless of their "static"ness.
I'd be intersted in hearing your opinion on the experience because I've been wondering a lot lately about the "right" language to use in an introductory course.
Yes, UC Davis does have a strong networks program coupled with one of the top computer security programs in the nation. I must admit I'm also a little surprised that nobody has mentioned Davis when discussing graphics programs as it is my understanding that our program is pretty strong.
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I TA'd that first course. I felt it was a bit of a disaster due, in part, to the book being used. The material jumped between introductory imperative constructs (conditional/loops/etc) and OOP philosophy much too quickly for an introductory course.
The main example that comes to mind was an early discussion of the differences between class members (i.e., static members) and instance members. While important, this topic was emphasized much too early in the book (right before or right after for loops) and in the lecture (which closely followed the book). This served to confuse a number of students that were still trying to grasp how methods work, regardless of their "static"ness.
I'd be intersted in hearing your opinion on the experience because I've been wondering a lot lately about the "right" language to use in an introductory course.
Yes, UC Davis does have a strong networks program coupled with one of the top computer security programs in the nation. I must admit I'm also a little surprised that nobody has mentioned Davis when discussing graphics programs as it is my understanding that our program is pretty strong.