@futurebird Wow! A touchy bunch.

You already have a ton of replies here AND know what you’re doing so you don’t need me (random internet person but former professor with lots of experience teaching anxious undergrads coding) to chime in.

FWIW when teaching I tried to normalize “errors” even by referring to them as “messages” because calling it an error feels like “oh I already did something wrong”. But “errors” only happen because computers are truly not very smart; an error is when it can’t understand our instructions, what we are telling it to do. The human can’t make an “error”; only the computer does. Anyway I’d also shorten the cycle between coding and compiling - having students re-compile/run the program after every tiny little change shortens the feedback loop, normalizes “errors” (like exposure therapy), and makes troubleshooting easier.

Again you don’t need my input at all — thanks for the flashback to my teaching days!

Best of luck with this group! ️