Run!

[SteveCRM]

my AP Comp teacher wants to start teaching MFC!!!!!!!!!1

[Zaei]

Shoot him, and take his job.

Or simply report him to the schools admin... MFC has NOTHING to do with the AP curriculum.

Z.

[parksie]

Shoot him, and give me his bloody job

[Zaei]

Most stories of computer science teachers make me half want to teach...

"apvector... bah! apstring... bah! apstack.... bah! std::vector, string, stack!"

Sure, they might fail the test, but they will be able to program =).

Z.

[parksie]

What is the point of teaching completely different things to the language?

The whole point of the Standard Library is that it *is* part of the language, in the same way that you'd get laughed down in C for not using strlen, etc., without a bloody good reason.

[Zaei]

Supposedly, the ap classes are easier to understand. Not that anyone ever teaches what is inside of them. Regardless, its idiotic.

Z.

[parksie]

The Standard Library is easy enough to understand, if you're taught the principles behind it

*sigh*

[Technocrat]

So teach a class then Parksie, you have nothing else to do right?
I would take it, I want to learn more on STL

[Zaei]

parksie is overqualified for the position. In fact, he knows something... =).

Z.

[parksie]

Originally posted by Zaei
parksie is overqualified for the position. In fact, he knows something... =).

Z.

True

I have nowhere near the knowledge required to teach a class, there are some insidiously simple things in there that people don't use because they don't know they're there

I started a bit the wrong way to know them, umm, "spiritually" as it were. I'm getting there though

[CornedBee]

What's AP curriculum?

Nobody should force MFC on anyone! It must be a free decision to use it or not. And I see great danger in programming teachers teaching MFC. *shiver*
bad programming is bad, but bad MFC programming is worse!

[Zaei]

The AP Tests are a set of tests put together by The College Board (www.collegeboard.com), for students planning to attend colleges which accept the tests. If you get a high score (scores from 0..5), you can get x number of credits per test you take. For most of the tests, this can be pretty tough, but the CS one is quite easy. There are 40 multiple choice questions, as well as 6 free response questions (the real test). In the 6 free questions, you actually have to write code.

The CS test, as well as the curriculum generally centers around a Case Study package that AP has come up with. In a few words, it is a load of crap.

I believe all of this stuff i availible for free off the college board web site, here: http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/stude...sci/index.html . Take a look.

Z.

[SteveCRM]

they mention a marine biology program...I remember kids doing it a few years back...I don't get it? What are they trying to do with 'case studies'???

[Zaei]

Its a load.

Z.

[transcendental]

Originally posted by Zaei
Supposedly, the ap classes are easier to understand. Not that anyone ever teaches what is inside of them. Regardless, its idiotic.

Z.

What are ap classes? I never heard of apstring and apvector, except they are mentioned by Zaei here.

[Zaei]

They are exactly what they say. apvector is a vector class written by the AP people, apstring is a string... check the link above for more (bad) info.

Z.

[transcendental]

From what I feel about what you say, I think it is not a bad thing as it lets the students learn how the STL works by introducing a less sophisticated version.

STL maybe is easy to use(eg << operator) but to get a gist of how it is possible, is not especially to an inquisitive C newbie, like me then, who likes to know how everything works, would not like being told that I will know how STL works, much later(templates).

I finally knows how a << operator is overloaded and works.

[transcendental]

Don't tell me the students don't get to write their own ap classes.

Then that's bad. STL all the way.

[transcendental]

Just found out ap classes are not templatized classes.

[Zaei]

See?

While I have to agree that you MUST teach the theory, you can only teach so much theory before your students go nuts. You need to let them code as well, if the course is a programming course. If all you learn is theory, you have no way to apply that theory. I have seen students, that, when assigned to write a queue program, will actually write the program in C, instead of taking advantage of the reusablility of template classes, because they just dont understand the benefits of classes.

Might I add that the highest score on the AP CS Test is ~70%.

Z.

[Zaei]

They are template classes. The string is NOT, but the other are (if they werent... good god).

Z.