Re: University courses in Cocoa/Objective-C?

FROM : Rick Hoge
DATE : Thu Nov 08 23:25:57 2007

>> I am particularly interested in whether any such courses exist in 
>> the Montreal area, but of course would also like to hear about them 
>> anywhere.  Any feedback on the experience (was it useful, was it 
>> well attended, how did it come about, what department offered it) 
>> would be greatly appreciated.  I'm kind of worried that if I 
>> suggest it to our comp-sci department, they'll laugh me out of the 
>> room.

>
> Why does the language matter at all?  Surely you're teaching courses 
> on computer science topics, rather than on languages.  I always 
> though the "what language do we use?" question was rather secondary 
> to "what topics do we teach them?".  If you're teaching a course on 
> something that Obj-C/Cocoa does well, like proper Object Oriented 
> coding, or building user interfaces, then go for it.  On the other 
> hand, if you're teaching a course on functional programming, you may 
> be on a loser.


I agree that comp-sci concepts are one thing, and that the specific 
language is another.  However the fact is that in many university 
environments, Cocoa and Objective-C are conspicuous in their complete 
absence in any form as an option for either type of course.

It seems that Java is traditionally the language used to provide a 
gentle introduction to OO concepts - this clearly has the advantage 
that it is platform independent (Python might be another option these 
days).  There are also (widely available) basic courses simply 
targeted at teaching various languages such as C++ and Java - not the 
case for Cocoa/Obj-C.

Your point is well taken that such a course should target the 
strengths of Cocoa/Obj-C.  It seems like it would be good to have a 
course (allowing students to get started developing on the Mac in the 
'native' programming environment), but what kind of course?