John Zelle, professor of computer science, sits while working at his laptop in the Science Center.
- Photo by Roland Ferrie

It is not uncommon for Wartburg College professors to produce research and write books pertaining to their field that get published, but few can say their textbook is being used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After two years of writing course notes, creating exercises, finding solutions to the exercises and developing instructor material, John Zelle finished his book “Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science.”

The computer science professor’s book is being used in more than 20 schools in America, including MIT. MIT started using his book a year ago as an alternative to Java for their introductory courses.

“I actually wrote the materials out of necessity,” Zelle said. “I wanted to be teaching this curriculum and there weren’t any books out there. I thought, well I could do a service for the field and try to promote Python by putting the book out there where other people could use it.”

Zelle inspired professors at other colleges to write books on Python. Luther College is one of them. Luther used Zelle’s book for a year and one of their professors published his own version of Python.

“Python Programming” is just the start for Zelle, who is in the process of writing another book for 200-level computer science majors.

Wartburg started using Python in May 1999 as an alternative to other programming languages. Wartburg was also one of the first colleges to use Python at that time as a central part of the curriculum. Zelle said that languages like Java and C++ were unnecessarily complex for the kind of programming the computer science department wanted to do for beginner-level classes.

“Python allows us to write the same program with a lot less code,” Zelle said. “So something in Java that might take 100 lines to do, I can do in 20-30 lines in Python. Because it takes a lot less writing, it means we can do more.”

Python allows students to write a computer program more easily compared to other computer languages like Java and C++. Students can create programs such as guessing games like hangman and rock, paper, scissors, or practical programs like calendars.

“Python is relatively easier to learn because it is much more flexible in terms of writing a code,” Prateek Shrestha said. He also said Java and C++ requires one to be more careful about writing syntax, which is a written form of any command in programming.

“For example, if you write a comma instead of a semi-colon, the whole program would not work in Java or C++. Python is easier in that regard,” he said.

Search engines such as Google, control systems in NASA, applications for the World Wide Web, research laboratories and day-to-day businesses also use Python.

“It’s a real world language,” Zelle said. “It’s very powerful. At the same time, it’s a language that is very clear and easy to learn. It seems simpler for students.”