On 12/10/2013 05:11 PM, Robert Klemme wrote:
But then again there is the motivational effect: seeing something
visually in a graphical UI can be much more rewarding than some
characters on a console - at least for some. On that grounds I would
not totally dismiss teaching Swing - even if event based programming or
user interfaces is not the primary goal of the lesson. Some care should
be applied to not focus too much on the Swing side then, e.g. by
providing some framework or application where learners fill in certain
parts.
Robert, others have made that point too, that seeing something visual (a
GUI) is motivational...as you say, at least for some. I truly don't know
how important that is, since I've not been a novice for decades. It does
occur to me that there are plenty of programming languages where you
would not even remotely contemplate introducing GUIs in a first semester
course, and students still manage. Java makes it just easy enough to
introduce a GUI through Swing (AWT before that, for that matter); I tend
to agree with you that little emphasis should be placed on the Swing
code itself.