Re: Teaching Java, teaching what?
On 12/9/2013 10:17 AM, Silvio wrote:
On 12/09/2013 02:34 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:
Silvio <silvio@internet.com> writes:
Why not have them write a simple Servlet or two?
The time for teaching is very limited: I now often have only
30 hours to take students from ?no programming experience
whatsoever? to ?first steps with Swing? including exercises
done in the classroom. When teaching Java with Swing, I need
the JDK as the one single dependency: javac Main.java, java
Main, and that's it.
I have the impression that teaching servlets is more
time-consuming, because the toolchain is longer and the
configuration and application of more tools needs to be done
and explained.
If you sufficiently wrap the embedded container inside a utility class
the toolchain becomes quite short and all the students would do is
define a Servlet class implementing a doGet method. They would need to
know some basics about a HTTPServletResponse but I suspect getting
started with even the most basic Swing stuff requires more knowledge
upfront.
A desktop app is very standalone.
Web means:
- two apps: browser and server
- knowledge of at least HTML required (CSS and JS optional)
- a little bit of knowledge about HTTP and the interaction
And web is often less OO than desktop apps, which may move
focus from the purpose of the course.
Arne