[TriLUG] Teaching Kids to Program

[Ken MacKenzie via TriLUG]

I think when it comes to the problem they want to solve it comes down to
the language being good as a math learning tool, but also since they like
video games so much I figured a known game dev library would be good as
they get better.

For the former I could maybe pick FOTRAN.  I have to comb my own mental
archives for remembering how to code in Fortran....

Ken

On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 1:58 PM, Nikolas Everett via TriLUG <
trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 9:53 AM, Tadd Torborg via TriLUG <
> trilug at trilug.org>
> wrote:
>
> > I'm pretty old-school, doing assembly and C mostly.  I might not be
> > familiar with the best choice.  My suggestion is that you ponder how easy
> > each of the choices is from a few other perspectives.
> > Does it have syntax?  Are errors in coding easy to read and understand?
> > Is it easy to use error-output to help fix the problem?
> > Once the program is able to be run, can you trivially analyze what is
> > happening/did happen or add programmatic features to diagnose the
> > execution?  i.e. stdout, blinking lights, log files.
> > Does it lend itself to real-time behaviors?  communicating with other
> > devices, fetching and parsing web pages, controlling servos & motors,
> > reading buttons.
> >
> > Can you make copies of your product?  Reproduce hardware? Deliver code to
> > friends?
> > Can you show it off in another location?  I.e. is the platform portable?
> > Does the choice teach the skills you want?  
> >
> > Will it track your cats while you are at work?
> >
> >   Tadd
> >
> >
> Ooh Tadd, how I've missed you.
>
> I suppose you could reword all that as:
> 1. Will it solve a problem that the person you are teaching is interested
> in?
> 2. Is it easy to debug when you write an invalid program?
> 3. Is it easy to debug when your program is doing something wrong?
> 4. Will it run where you want it to run?
>
> Python is pretty good for all of these. Except when you want it to run on
> an embedded system (C/ASM/Lua of all things) or in a web page (JavaScript
> or go home, really).
>
>
>
> Nik
> --
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