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Subject:
From:
Geoff Bull <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Geoff Bull <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 3 Dec 1999 13:11:02 +1100
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"Richard L. Conn" wrote:
> The VB controls
> operate at such a high
> level of abstraction that you don't have to worry about
> the low-level details and can concentrate on the problem.

Actually, I wonder if that's not part of your problem.

I still remember the first Rubiks cube I saw up close (circa 1979
when the craze first hit Australia). There it was on a table
in the common room, in pieces. An engineer had raced out and
bought one and immediately dismantled it. He wasn't interested
in playing with the damn thing, he just wanted to see how it worked!

You say your students are excited by the glitz of VB.
Yet half of them drop out, it doesn't figure??

I still think there might be merit in "hello world" as
means of demonstrating that there is no such thing as magic.
Because to a newbie, surely VB is just that, magic.
And many people are afraid of magic.

Actually, complete disbelief in magic probably doesn't come until
a computer architecture course. Do they still teach this?
I thought they might not, because if you don't work for Intel,
you don't have any need for such knowledge :-)

One question: is your course a compulsory subject or an elective?
If it's an elective, people that think the course sucks are
much less likely to persevere.

__
Geoff

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