The Lunatic visits my house for dinner, and reminding me that there’s no water on Luna, asks if it would be possible to take a bath chez moi. Of course I reply in the affirmative. But there’s a problem, says the Lunatic: I don’t know how to take a bath!
So begins my traditional introduction to programming. I ask students to imagine that the Lunatic visits them and makes the same request. Can they write clear, straightforward instructions which allows the Lunatic to take a bath and return to the dinner table without being drowned, scalded, poisoned, maimed, or found inappropriately attired out in the street?
The task is more difficult than it looks, and speaks to students (in)ability to break down a problem into small, ordered steps. And such a skill is one of the three I proposed, today, as necessary for success in programming. The others are reading with precision and visualizing the contents of memory.
In the final analysis, all three are necessary to prevent the Lunatic from drowning!
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