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Originally Posted by headhawg
Again, you're thinking more like an experienced programmer who understands the concepts. I've taught enough beginners to know that they can barely understand loops, arrays, or nested IFs let alone classes, objects, and overloaded methods. You want people to learn something that they can use in the future. I would be more interested in having them get a solid foundation in programming logic without any thought of what they might need three years from now. Once the basic understanding is there then people can graduate to a more flexible, powerful language like Python, Ruby, or C#.
For those who might be interested, coursera.org has some programming classes available. LINK Some courses listed are for future dates (like the Intro to Python class), and some are past classes that are still available to sign up for and learn from (like the Learn to Program: Fundamentals class).
And while I'm in favor of people learning how to program, if researching data (datamining) is the goal then I see nothing wrong with using Excel or Access to accomplish that if the limitations of those applications are known in advance. I just can't imagine a beginner trying to make a SQL db connection through Python, or BASIC, or whatever. No need to reinvent the wheel. |
I have nothing bad to say about Access or Excel. A HUGE advantage of both is the ability to learn (and use) VBA, which is a subset of Visual Basic. It all translates directly--everything you learn about VBA in Access or Excel can be used in Visual Basic--with a stunning application like Visual Studio to do it in.
It is also very easy to wire a VB application to Access or Excel--to use all the data and facilities in an Access database or Excel spreadsheet--without ever seeing it onscreen. Not rocket science or a steep learning curve. No more than a couple of lines of code.
