Is it just me or is the python being taught not very good? See for example this lecture: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Compute.... The prof starts off by saying that internal class variables should not be accessed directly through the instance, and rather through attribute accessors. The example code with the lecture posted above is littered with what I would I call messy python. Messy attribute setters and getters, catching KeyErrors instead of using .get() on a dictionary, etc.
If you're going to teach using python should you not teach pythonic practices as well? Or is it just about the CS? Otherwise there will be a bunch of MIT grads who will have to relearn python if they ever intend to use it in industry which seems to be the goal. The majority of the comments here seem to be in favour of teaching python because python is fun. Teaching python like java seems to me to take the fun out of it.
If academia chooses a language to teach with should they use the common practices of that language, or does it not really matter?
If you're going to teach using python should you not teach pythonic practices as well? Or is it just about the CS? Otherwise there will be a bunch of MIT grads who will have to relearn python if they ever intend to use it in industry which seems to be the goal. The majority of the comments here seem to be in favour of teaching python because python is fun. Teaching python like java seems to me to take the fun out of it.
If academia chooses a language to teach with should they use the common practices of that language, or does it not really matter?
*edit for formatting... I'm new here