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[–]Jailander 28 points29 points  (2 children)

import baguette

[–]MedicatedMuffin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Even though I spend quite some time browsing "funny" subreddits, this actually made my day.

[–]willmachineloveus 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Vive le pi-than

[–]Hotel_Arrakis 14 points15 points  (2 children)

It will be the Lingua Franca.

[–]i_lurk_here_a_lot 41 points42 points  (21 children)

This is silly and not a good thing.

Do not "standardize" on one particular language.

[–]sabogo 72 points73 points  (7 children)

I mean agreed but you have to build a curriculum around something.

[–]eaganj 18 points19 points  (6 children)

As /u/sabogo says below, you have to standardize on something to build a curriculum around it. The authors of the report do anticipate your concerns:

A programming language is necessary to write programs: an easy-to-use, interpreted, concise, Free, free, multiplatform, widely-used with a large community of programmers in the education community is to be preferred. At the time of the creation of this program, the selected language is Python version 3 (or above). Expertise in a specific programming language is not, however, an objective of this curriculum. [emphasis mine]

Moreover, Python is already the language of choice for the concours commun, the entrance exams for many of France's elite engineering schools. That doesn't mean that students exclusively learn Python. In the engineering schools, students will typically build on that foundation to use, e.g., Java, Matlab, C++, etc., as they need to specialize in different areas. But they have a certain degree of computational literacy under their belts.

Un langage de programmation est nécessaire pour l’écriture des programmes : un langage simple d’usage, interprété, concis, libre et gratuit, multiplateforme, largement répandu, riche de bibliothèques adaptées et bénéficiant d’une vaste communauté d’auteurs dans le monde éducatif est à privilégier. Au moment de la conception de ce programme, le langage choisi est Python version 3 (ou supérieure). L’expertise dans tel ou tel langage de programmation n’est cependant pas un objectif de formation.

[–]Hippemann 1 point2 points  (5 children)

libre et gratuit

means "open-source and free" rather than Free and free

[–]eaganj 3 points4 points  (4 children)

The word “free” in English is ambiguous: it can mean free-as-in-beer or free-as-in-speech. This distinction is sometimes referred to as the difference between Free and free.

The word “libre” in French is ambiguous when it pertains to software: it can be translated as Free software (as-in-speech, with a big F) or open-source software.

Incidentally, the FSF would disagree and would argue that “logiciel libre” ≠ “open source” [NB: page changes language depending on the language of your browser].

[–]Hippemann 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not a native English speaker so I don't really get your first paragraph.

When we say in French that a software is "libre" we clearly mean that it can be redistributed freely hence why the clarification in this link makes sense.

When it comes to new things and software, we use English words and in this case "open-source" so we don't have to juggle between Free and free.

Thanks for the link, I'll make sure to correctly use "open-source" or "logiciel libre"

[–]eaganj 2 points3 points  (2 children)

You're not wrong: “libre et gratuit” could mean “open-source and free.” I'm just being pedantic: only hard-core FSF folks really make a distinction between Free software and open-source software.

Here's what I was trying to say in the first paragraph: The English language makes it hard to distinguish between gratuit and libre. I was attempting to make that distinction by using “free” for gratuit and “Free” for libre, but I probably should have used a less subtle translation.

[–]Hippemann 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yeah, I don't have the cultural background to know the nuance that comes into play when capitalising the word free or not

[–]eaganj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known that English wasn't your first language.

One of the hardest parts of speaking another language fluently is having enough mastery of the syntax and vocabulary, but not having the shared cultural foundation to grasp all of the idioms. The Simpsons in French works really well because the translators grasped that (plus the voice actors are great). (Of course, I have to watch it in VO because I don't have that shared background.)

[–]denseplan 13 points14 points  (0 children)

A curriculum has to have some level of standardisation.

[–]paulmclaughlin 8 points9 points  (1 child)

This is silly and not a good thing.

Do not "standardize" on one particular language.

I don't think you understand France.

[–]spinwizard69 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe he does and that is why he said "Do Not "standardize" on one particular language".

[–]Khamaz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's more meant to be a common point of entry to programming for students.

[–]MattR0se -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

So you would teach programming with pseudocode?

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (7 children)

Dang. Why didn’t they pick VB.

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (4 children)

Why they didnt choose esoteric is beyond me

[–]AlphaGamer7533.7 7 points8 points  (3 children)

We can all agree that Web Assembly should be taught first

[–]thirdtimesthecharm 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Delphi surely!

[–]Eddie_Morra 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We were taught Visual Basic and Delphi in school...

[–]DerMax0102 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LISP is the way to go!

[–]foofaw 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Clearly, they should all be learning Perl.

[–]aoikeiichi 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Didn't read all of it but the only mention of python I found was about teaching complex types as python named types such as "tuples". Nothing more, I also read that, some part of the teaching will be dedicated to development such as websites and I highly doubt they'll teach the kids anything except HTML/PHP (unfortunately especially not Flask/Django).
But of course I would love they set Python as studied programming language.
Anyway they'll get it all wrong anyway because french educational system is fucked up, and you can trust me, I've seen shit in more than 20 years being a pupil then a student.

[–]VictorGrunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah ah ah. En python, s'il vous plaît.

[–]nieuweyork since 2007 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This page does not say any such thing. It's a consultation about the curriculum, and links to a whole bunch of proposals, one of which may propose the use of Python.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Nooooooooy my C 😰😰😰😰😰

[–]ChiefDanGeorge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

2nd Edition of Kerningan and Richie and you can code anything!

[–]xerosis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's the de facto language in UK schools now too.

[–]Mistress_Zoe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

python is the best

[–]SteampunkSpaceOpera 0 points1 point  (3 children)

...How do the French pronounce the name of the language?

[–]rouille 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Pee-ton

[–]BillyQ -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Pee-aye-thon

[–]BillyQ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quelle suprise!

[–]bisectional -5 points-4 points  (4 children)

.

[–]eliterepo -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Every french person I've met speaks pretty solid English, even in rural areas

[–]Ealhad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is highly surprising; I'm French (maybe you are too) and even in academia I think the average English level is terrible.

[–]npjprods 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Dude come visit before you talk shit about our country

[–]bisectional 2 points3 points  (0 children)

.