Python is Number 1

I saw a weird statistic in one study today. Python is now the number one language being used by colleges to teach entry level computer science classes. Phillip Guo took a look at the top 40 colleges. He researched what the intro computer science classes use to teach programming. Surprisingly, Python is number 1.


Of course Java comes in second place. I thought that Java would still be king for instructional teaching. I might be showing my age. But I remember when they taught you Fortran in the beginner engineering classes. And I think computer science used Pascal. Then they probably went to C and C++.


The real question is whether Python is a good language to learn computer science with. I know Python is easy to get started with. However I think I am still partial to Pascal. It felt pure. Let you concentrate on the theory and not get bogged down in the language.