Question

Is the lectures in the MIT 6.00 course still relevant today?
Is this the introductory course taught to all CS students on MIT or just for non CS students? I would think they used something more advance like C.

Answer 1

In fact, Python is more modern than C. I don't say it's a a better language since there are no languages better than others ( maybe sometimes more suitables for a class of problems). But for example, Python is object-oriented, not C.
For the first question, I don't think the MIT would put online courses not taught anymore. And the main objective is not to learn Python, but to grasp some knowledge of what computer science is.

Answer 2

well as you said C is more advanced so if you never programmed better to use something easier
as for OOP there are better alternatives as python is scripting language

Answer 3

MIT offers two introductory courses in computer science. MIT 6.00 (this course) is for non computer science majors. The aim of the course is to learn computation, not a programming language. One can use any programming language. Having said that, Python is a very advanced language. It's extensively used in the sciences, for example, because of its wealth of libraries. MIT 6.001 is the course taken by computer science majors. Course material for that is also available on OCW. MIT 6.001 uses Scheme, a dialect of LISP. If you are looking for something more advanced, try MIT 6.001.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/

Answer 4

I agree with @matrie_kao. I think it's fruitless to assert one language is superior or more "advanced" than another. It depends upon the class of problems you are trying to solve. Is a hammer more "advanced" than a screwdriver? I never liked C because of having to worry about pointers and memory management. But if were an embedded programmer and needed to write software to control robots or hardware, having that feature available in C is wonderful.

Top universities use LISP (Scheme) as the programming language of choice for computer science. LISP and Python are similar in that "You write small concise programs that do small concise things, and test them in small concise ways." Overall, that's a good set of habits to pickup if you aim to be a computer scientist or a programmer. By contrast "C and friends are designed for writing large, industrial-strength programs, and have lots of features -- such as required type declarations -- that make them run FAST, but which at the same time make them difficult to use for small, concise applications."