PexForFun: Nothing easier than boolean operators... really?!

Question

Hi there :)

I only recently learned about PexForFun and the technology behind. Well, what can I say - it really got me *excited*. The part that got me most is about spreading interest in/teaching CS: I do think that it's REALLY great for teaching | learning!

However, nothing's perfect - least of all me. So, right now, I am wondering what makes a really nice, interesting and thought-provoking code-duel. One thing that is to consider definitely is to NOT frustrate people prematurely. Then, I think, it'd be great and motivating to be able to build upon simpler ones s.t. harder ones get feasible.

Ok, enough of theory-of-didactics talk or whatever, here's some stuff I would love to see you try out (and hit me with your complaints :) It's about boolean operators, something really simple - but once you start thinking about it...

• SimpleUnaryBooleanOp0 and follow-ups ...1, ...2 and ...3: to get you started, "what really is a boolean operator?" (easy points in any case!)
• IndexOfUnaryBooleanOperator: taking a little turn, generalizing in a way the 4 above (still: easy points)
• IndexOfNullaryBooleanOperator: in fact this is trivial, rather for completeness. However, probably helpful to go ahead.
• IndexOfBinaryBooleanOperator: well, you name it: just driving it further before abstracting.
• MaxIndexOfBooleanOperator: abstracting from arity (as far as we can go with native types).
• ... can think of more if you like :) 

So, it's about your experience. I was trying to make the transition from n to n+1 rather easy but still have significant advancement. What do you think, could you have solved e.g. the last two right away, without having looked at the previous ones? What if otherwise, too easy, maybe even boring then?

Also, did those code contracts help you or were they rather annoying, getting into your way?

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meisl

p.s.: just in case you like the above: there are some more that I put up, just click on "meisl" to see them listed

 

Answer 1

Your puzzle are nicely annotated and very didactic. However, there is currently no flow between them as pex4fun does not provide the 'try the next duel' link in your series.

Have you though about merging those duels into a Page? It would give exactly this feeling to the user + the ability for you to explain things between duels. (not to mention they are easier to author).

I've enabled the page/course authoring feature for your alias. You should be able to play with the feature - maybe it fits better your needs.

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Jonathan "Peli" de Halleux - Try Pex online at www.pexforfun.com!

Answer 2

Hey, thanks :D, appreciate this!

Well, and you have just convinced me, I'm going to put together some pages. From what I can tell so far (with the few stats that I get from PexForFun, but still), the above series found considerable more interest than my IROBM experiment, most probably due to having several things up at once rather than expecting from ppl to follow some obscure thing over several days without knowing where it might be going. However, I still think that having something like "try next" - particularly a "NOW you may try the next" - would prove a great means for arousing/keeping ppl interested. So, what about adding the possibility for a course's author to mark pages as kind of milestone-pages, like so: registered students must have passed all the duels on it in order to see subsequent pages in course?

Ok, so thanks again, I will come up with something on PexForFun as you propose; but I do have to ask for patience, as I mentioned somewhere it's unfortunately only the weekends when I can really afford to dive in :)

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meisl

p.s.: found in the "Live-feed" that some anon user had attempted MaxIndexOfBooleanOperator for the 66th time! Without probably (can't be sure) having solved the predecessor IndexOfBinaryBooleanOperator , BUT the ones before that. So... I would really like to know what's going on with this guy - or what's wrong with my puzzles. Some more simple stats for the author of "ordinary" duels would be really helpful. Nevertheless, I see that I'm getting more stats from a course and I will give it try.

Answer 3

The courses are nice - you can also see the last attempt of each student for each puzzle. We will continue to push the course aspect deeper into pex4fun in the future.

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Jonathan "Peli" de Halleux - Try Pex online at www.pexforfun.com!

Answer 4

Hi,

as promised I did some experimenting with courses. But, to be honest, I'm not really confident, mostly with myself and what I produced I guess.

Anyways, here's my first attempt at making a page re the boolean operators stuff: http://pexforfun.com/Page.aspx#f3455c9a-7ce7-4240-b3c2-3d5f1b01915a

The main problem is I guess that it's overly detailed/elaborate, thus being too long before getting interesting. Plz have a look and drop me a comment about how to improve.

Thanks,

meisl

p.s.: is it possible to embed small illustrations in a page, as images? I think this could be quite useful. If so, how do I do it?

Answer 5

This is looking promising. Couple commments:

- change the page name for something nicer. Pex gives you a guid to start but we expect you to change it to something humanly readable :)
- i think the preface should be away the goal of the page. Currently, it is a bit blury what you are trying to acheive.
- to make your class more engaging, sprinkle it with small duels.
- if your pages become too long, try breaking them into small pages and create a course around it.

Otherwise, GO GO GO GO! You are obviously passionate about this stuff and it shows in your page. If would not expect anyone to write the perfect class on the first try, so I would not worry if your first page was not the 'ultimate' teaching page. You are learing the pex4fun platform and trying to explain complex CS concepts - it is quite a challenge. Please continue 'following your passion' and if it is teaching/explaining CS, then we welcome all your content at pex4fun.

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Jonathan "Peli" de Halleux - Try Pex online at www.pexforfun.com!

Answer 6

Thanks for the encouraging feedback!

> change the page name for something nicer.

sure, was just the first version at which I wanted you to have you a look. Hmm, or you mean I can have it human-readable and still "private", right?

> i think the preface should be away the goal of the page

not sure, do you mean there shouldn't be a need for such a preface at all? Like, the page (and title) should speak for themselves?

>  Currently, it is a bit blury what you are trying to acheive.

hehe, good observation. Actually that's because I am myself not sure where I'm heading... 8}

> ... sprinkle it with small duels ...  try breaking them into small pages ...

d'accord, I will.

 

Finally: yes, it is (one of) my passion(s). So, once again, BIG thanks for the support! :D Will try to incorporate your suggestions but it may take some time, you know.

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meisl

Answer 7

omg the page feature is really a revolutionary step for pex4fun. Peli, did you think about polishing and completing it and then sending it off to universities and schools as a teaching tool? You could compile an editorial list of the best pages and puzzles. This is the ultimate CS teaching tool.

 

Answer 8

The page/courses is quite new and we are looking for passionate users to start filling content. Are you interrested?

And yes in the future, we want to show case good courses, etc... to foster content built by the community rather than us.

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Jonathan "Peli" de Halleux - Try Pex online at www.pexforfun.com!