
I am open sourcing my high school APCS project - cheesylard
http://github.com/rweichler/wuigi
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ohazi
Does anybody remember that fish tank simulation? Are they still doing that?

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mccolin
I had APCS around the time they were winding down C++ and ramping up Java. We
had to implement BigInt, among other things, as part of our project (circa
2000). I believe the next years my friends had the fish simulation.

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albertyw
I wonder how long it'll take College Board to move to a more expressive
language like Python or Ruby. The basicness of AP CS (learning loops,
recursion, and simple OO) means students don't learn enough about programming
for the benefits of Java to be apparent. I knew a lot of classmates who were
put off of programming by APCS, not least because of the verbosity and density
of Java.

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Jach
I'd see them moving to something like C# before Python or Ruby, or even
perhaps back to C++. (I think the formerly used Pascal is safely dead as an
option.) For an indication of what they are most likely to prefer, I'd say
look at what the most popular first-language-taught to beginner CS students in
college is. There's also a bit more to the basic AP CS (I'm still sad they
killed the AB program, which is the one I took) like sorting algorithms and
the difference between a static array and an ArrayList...

I think it's the responsibility of the professor and the district to offer a
programming class separate from the APCS one, ideally in some other
language(s) than Java, rather than trying to make the APCS class into a more
"fun" class that's more about programming applications than about CS and
understanding how programming actually works. An alternative course also makes
for an interesting and knowledge-packed 9th- or 10th-grade computer course
that can double as slight preparation for later; having passed Algebra 2 is
typically required for APCS and hence most students won't even be allowed to
take it until 11th or 12th. (My school had a C++ class, though when I was a
senior and TAing I insisted on showing the students Python and PyGame near the
end of the year. To my knowledge the professor has continued showing other
languages/applications besides the one the class focuses on, once I even did a
talk about Clojure to the AP kids while I was in the area visiting family.)

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unimpressive
May I ask TempleOS (Who is better known as Losethos and is hellbanned due to
having schizophrenia.) what that is a picture of?

EDIT: It'd be really nice if I could reply to hellbanned users, even if only
they can see it.

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shawnz
It seems to be a CNC machine capable of printing frosting!

[http://www.templeos.org/images/Frosting.jpg](http://www.templeos.org/images/Frosting.jpg)
[http://www.templeos.org/images/CttnTail.jpg](http://www.templeos.org/images/CttnTail.jpg)

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bowmessage
Hey, I wrote something similar my Senior year in HS. Learned a ton doing it.
Had my friends do level, graphic, and sound design. It was a multiplayer
networked shooter but it wasn't anywhere near perfect. Here's the link!

[https://github.com/bowmessage/Cantro](https://github.com/bowmessage/Cantro)

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DesaiAshu
Awesome stuff for an APCS project! If you're interested in porting the game to
iOS I'd recommend checking out our website MakeGamesWithUs
([https://www.makegameswith.us](https://www.makegameswith.us)), we teach
people like you who know java how to build games for iPhone. We also have a
really cool level hub feature set in our SDK which you might be interested in
for this game. It allows users to build / share / play / upvote levels and
discover new levels through their feed + top lists. If you're interested,
shoot me an email at ashu@makegameswith.us and we can chat more!

