Newbie tutorial - if statements

ruby-talk
1

Hi sir Daniel (aka Daniel Carrera [mailto:dcarrera@math.umd.edu]):

You asked last Sunday, December 08, 2002 3:55 AM:

I need an opinion for my tutorial. I’m trying to figure out
the easiest way to teach if statements. I don’t know if I
should teach them with the “then” part or not.

if cond then
…
end

or

if cond
…
end

On the one hand, “then” makes it sound more like English. On
the other, it’s one more thing the student feels (s)he has to
remember.

Any opinions?

I am a ruby newbie but I’ve taught newbie children too (but not ruby).

The hurdle is actually explaining the if-end block. Once you get pass that,
you just then say “actually you can put a ‘then’, but that is not necessary
since the ‘computer’ knows what you’re trying to mean… then pause to let
the student think :-))”. Btw, you do have to mention the “then” part to the
student, since (un)conciously you’ll notice that you always state the “then”
word to the student while explaining if-structures…

Daniel.

kind regards,
-botp