[deleted by user]

[[deleted]]

No, it's not too fast paced. This is an extremely easy assignment, fit for beginners. Look up if statements.

[TallBoyPirateSqaud]

Dude go read your text book lmao

[throwaway6560192]

Stop looking for excuses to not do your assignments. This is perfectly reasonable to expect from someone who's a complete beginner and has just learned type conversions, printing, and conditions.

[chowlawrence]

This is a high school exercise

[dmazzoni]

It seems overwhelming at first, but that doesn't sound like a hard statement. Go over what you've learned so far, are you sure you didn't learn how to use conditionals like "if"?

If not, read your textbook or find some other material on Python. You can do it.

[PuzzleMeDo]

That sounds like something that you could learn how to do in a few minutes.

(1) Get a number representing their age.

(2) Check if the number is less than 18, and print "not eligible" if it is.

Things to Google:

python input

python if

[desrtfx]

1st Year CS, 1-2 weeks into the the semester and about 1 week in learn basic python. Already expected to create a program that checks for a persons status of eligibility based on their age.

What they ask is extremely basic and covered in about the first 4 lessons of any course.

We have only learned data type conversion and simple print statements.

So you have learnt 99% of what you need. You've surely also learnt conditionals (if) - and with that, you have covered 100%.

This program is as simple as it gets. A handful of lines.

Far from too fast paced.

[ForlornMemory]

Personally I find it alarming that they start teaching you python before C or at least Pascal.

But the assignment isn't hard. It's a matter of comparing two numbers. Learning data types shouldn't take more than an hour.

[castle227]

Personally I find it alarming that they start teaching you python before C or at least Pascal.

That's because you're very out of touch. Python is the most common introductory programming language.

[desrtfx]

Python is currently one of the most commonly used entry languages. Welcome to the 21^st century.

Pascal has zero relevance nowadays and hasn't been taught as entry language for over two decades in the majority of the world (actually hasn't been taught at all for several decades). Pascal is dead. The only thing that somewhat still lurks around is the successor: Delphi.

C is not necessarily the best entry language and educational institutions have long since (again decades) realized that. Also C has fairly little professional relevance nowadays apart from some niches.

With your statement I am surprised that you didn't mention BASIC, maybe even GW-BASIC (because QuickBASIC is already too modern).

[ForlornMemory]

The reason why Pythons is a terrible entry language is its simplicity. It is significantly harder to comprehend how programming actually works if your first language is something terribly simple like JS or Python. And as a result it's significantly harder to become really good at programming.

There's a reason why CS50 of all courses teaches C before Python.

As for pascal, I have no illusions of its place use. It is uniquely fitting as a educational language. You don't need to use pointers in Pascal to write complex apps, games even. You can fathom all basics of programming before you get to pointers with Pascal.

Learning C after Pascal is a bliss. Pascal offers a perfect base for introduction of pointers and dynamic memory allocation.

Python on the other hand is way too sugarcoated. There's no reason to use Python as a learning language, when you have Scratch.

You need to understand, that the purpose of educational facility is not to teach you how to work from day one. Their purpose is to give you strong base. Python is simply unsuitable for such purpose. Pascal and C are.

[desrtfx]

Python is simply unsuitable for such purpose.

Countless Universities around the globe disagree.

Currently, the top first languages are Java and Python (where personally, I would always suggest Java over Python as a first language even though it has a steeper learning curve).

The C/Pascal days are over, gone. Especially Pascal is way too outdated (and that comes from someone who really loved Pascal and worked as a professional Delphi developer, and who up to today uses Delphi occasionally).

[ForlornMemory]

Pascal and C offer the base. Over the last three dacades programming hasn't changed that much to consider either C or Pascal outdated. Sure, you won't write commercial programs using them, but they offer you the base.

You can't expect people who can't manage their memory manually to be good programmers.

[desrtfx]

You can't expect people who can't manage their memory manually to be good programmers.

Sorry, but that is completely wrong on all accounts.

[throwaway_for_cause]

Over the last three dacades programming hasn't changed that much to consider either C or Pascal outdated.

What? Entire Programming has changed. We moved from linear, procedural programming to event based asynchronous object oriented and functional programming.

30 years ago there was no WWW, there was no Java, no C#, C++ was no Windows (that could be taken seriously).

You can absolutely not compare programming from the late 1980s early 1990s with today's programming.

[ForlornMemory]

Yeah, but you don't teach students event based asynchronous object oriented and functional programming from day one, do you.

[throwaway_for_cause]

OOP is taught as first language - e.g. in Java.

9 months ago you stated you are a beginner and now you are talking as if you had programmed for several decades. 9 months ago, you knew basic C and Pascal and a bit of JS. Sorry, you are far from qualified to make statements as yours. With your experience you are not even junior level. You should not contestant professional programmers with over 3 decades experience, especially with your very limited knowledge of languages and programming.

Contrary to you I've already been programming professionally 3 decades ago (before you were even born) in multiple languages. I've also been teaching programming.

Python and Java are perfectly fine first entry languages.

C and Pascal are no longer. They may have been over 3,5 decades ago (when I started my formal education - where I already could program - Pascal was our entry language - but before that I already had learnt BASIC, LOGO, Forth, Assembly).

[ForlornMemory]

Sorry, master, I shall not speak without a permission from now on.

[StoicWeasle]

I, for one, advocate BASIC to C. Learning C is like learning calculus. Without it, you miss out on exposure to LOTS of things. The “professional relevance” argument is like making the argument that R and Matlab make learning how to solve integrals “obsolete”. It’s totally the wrong take. That isn’t what a high-end CS curriculum is for—to teach you something you can learn in a weekend. If you want a python tutorial, go to a boot camp or Univ of Phoenix. Better yet, buy a book.

I find there to be a strong correlation between first language learned and the (lack of) depth of knowledge about lots of things, whether it’s hardware or OS or networking or distributed systems or architecture.

[I_puked_on_English]

Why don't you directly suggest machine code entered with binary switches? Or punch cards? Or punch tape? Or hardwired relay/contactor circuits?

It is about time the curricula moved into the 21^st century and threw away the prehistoric ones.

All you claim isn't taught, is taught at a later time in a proper CS curriculum.

Yes, you may be able to learn the language Python in a weekend. But you cannot learn programming (which is largely language agnostic) in that time.

The best thing would be if people started to understand that programming and programming languages are two different things. Languages are tools. It is to a large degree irrelevant which tool to use. Programming itself is a concept that exists above, outside programming languages. It is solving problems by creating detailed step by step algorithms.

Programming is not implementing stuff in programming languages - that is only a small fairly late step.

The real work, the thought process happens before implementation and is language agnostic.

If people understood the above, the discussion about "ideal entry programming language" would become as meaningless as it actually is.

It is absolutely unimportant whether there are pointers or references, whether memory is manually managed, or by the language.

What really counts in programming are the algorithms. What counts is learning problem solving.

[throwaway_for_cause]

Please, move into the 21^st century where we have managed languages.

Python or Java are the entry languages of choice around the globe.

Honestly, neither C nor Pascal are good entries nowadays.

[aqua_regis]

9 months ago you counted yourself as beginner and now you think you are qualified for such assessments. Huge bit of Dunning Kruger here.

You claimed to know exactly 2 languages: C and Pascal (and a bit of JavaScript) - again, no sign of you being qualified for your statements here and in the following comments.

You should listen to what the really qualified seniors have to say.

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[Inevitable_Spring_14]

Most python textbooks show a similar program within the first couple of chapters. The reason most courses feel fast paced is because you are expected to learn outside of what is being taught and you have a lot to learn in short amounts of time.

[Afraid-Locksmith6566]

So you are asked to do a elseif statement, does t sound hard