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A comment on Why MIT Switched from Scheme to Python (2009). Parent comment

Re:Why MIT Switched from Scheme to Python (2009) by rspeer on Friday April 21, 2017 @03:37PM (#14168698)
When you say "programming 101" you might not be talking about the MIT courses being discussed here.

6.001 was a course in functional programming, based on the book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.

6.01 (the replacement course that uses Python) is a project-based course involving robots and stuff.

Neither of these courses depend on any specific knowledge, but they would be very difficult courses if you've never programmed before. (Most people coming into MIT course 6 have programmed before.)

The "you don't know how to program, here's how to program" course has taken various forms over the years. When I was there it was 1.00, a Java course for engineers. Later it was 6.00, an optional intro to Python, based on "How To Think Like A Computer Scientist".

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Re:Why MIT Switched from Scheme to Python (2009) by BeetleB on Friday April 21, 2017 @05:46PM (#14169684)
>6.001 was a course in functional programming, based on the book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.

While I can't speak for MIT, SICP was used as the introductory course for CS in a number of universities. It assumes no programming. It is challenging, but that's the point of going to top universities.

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Re:Why MIT Switched from Scheme to Python (2009) by idreyn on Friday April 21, 2017 @04:40PM (#14169264)
As part of a reorganization of the undergraduate EECS curriculum last year the intro class is now two half-semester classes, 6.0001 and 6.0002. It's 0's all the way down!
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