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From: markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Teaching Java, teaching what?
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:57:34 -0800
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On 12/11/2013 3:36 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:

>    Why students attend, I can only guess! The save guess would
>    be: »to learn Java«. They range from college students of
>    computer science, via professional programmers (but in other
>    languages) to hobbyists.

I think is is too broad of a range.  I think you should decide whether 
you want to cater to hobbyists or professionals.  (You could even split 
your class into two, one for each.)  The professional class should 
assume a knowledge of algorithms and programming methodology.  The 
hobbyist course should assume neither.  Trying to split the middle 
ground isn't going to serve either group.

>    Actually, I like this, because it gives students a reason to
>    learn about interfaces and spares them from artificial
>    examples, such as

I think this is fine, as long as you are leading up to it.  I offered 
the idea of templates because I was concerned that you might be trying 
to fit in Swing before it was really needed or useful.  As an example of 
inheritance, interfaces and aggregation, it's great, as long as the 
students are ready for it.

I'm still concerned that you're introducing multi-threading too early, 
but I'll let you address that as well.