A Level Computer Science
The first half of the course emphasises console/command line programming. The assessment involves students extending a console mode application. This year's task is noughts and crosses. Centres that teach Pascal use the console mode in Delphi. Console mode then leads on to Object Pascal programming which can be introduced in console mode including creating a forms/windows-based Delphi application from within a console mode application. Indeed, in Delphi it is possible to have both a console window and GUI application windows open at the same time so students get to see how a GUI event-driven application is created from the bottom up with the application writing and reading to/from both console mode and Window. This empowers students to also create their own objects at runtime in a Windows environment thus gaining a good insight in to how a graphical user interface is programmed. This leads on to students creating their own classes. It is also possible using Delphi to mix assembly language programming with high level programming as well as examining the effect on the registers of the underlying machine. Thus without leaving Delphi students can experience the full range from the bottom up.
One of my students this year created an equivalent of Michael Kollings' Java-based Greenfoot system in Delphi as a proof of concept that a Greenfoot approach to teaching OOP could be done based on Delphi rather than Java. Is anyone interested in supporting the further development of this?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
