I want to teach my Nephew how to program.
In the good old days of Apple IIe, basic was perfect for beginners. Now, O-O and variable definitions make that tough. How should I start off on a young person?
I started when I was 5 on Apple basic, with my dad's supervision.
Any good links?
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I wouldn't suggest vb.net. It is an old language inheriting old vices.
You can teach some C-Like instead (but no C++): Java, Javascript, C#
You can think that it can be too complicated for a kid, because they are not as verbose as Basic, but you will be surprised!!! consider a kid nowadays can asimilate at least twice as you at his age.
As a software instructor of adults (in a corporate setting), I generally structure programming introduction classes and curricula like this:
1. start with an interpreted typeless language/environment (my personal favorite is REXX, but there are some languages that were specifically designed for beginners)
2. Once you've taught the basic programming structures (sequence, looping, branching) move on to variable manipulations.
Note: you might consider a switch to a strongly typed language or just force variable declaration.
3. Algorithms
4. Code packaging (routines and functions)
__________________________
Note: consider a new language here as well.
5. objects -- higher form of code packaging.
==========================
http://www.kidsdomain.com/
http://chris.pirillo.com/h
http://www.marshallbrain.c
Alice might be more fun than the languages we started with:
http://www.alice.org/
http://www.aliceprogrammin
Pascal is still the preferred language at University for teaching strutured programming techniques. I know it may seem old hat, but it is VERY structured and English like and is an ideal language in which to learn iteration, lists, SQL, arrays (called something else which I have forgotten after all these years).
If Pascal is still around, I would suggest that. The danger is that there is not much around on the Net on Pascal that I know of, and the "junior" might think he/she is learning an "uncool" program.
An alternative is Visual Basic 6. which is still around and great FUN as a learning language is a great way to introduce kids to programming. The move on to the .NET languages (C# or even VB.NET) once they have mastered VB.
VB6 is great fun, but can lead to "spaghetti" coding if standards are not maintained.
(The "goto" command still exits!). But a good teacher should ensure good commenting and forbid the use of "GoTo"s.
Just suggestions from someone who has been programming for over 45 years commercially and (now) in HIS second childhood of fun learning! :-)
I don't think Pascal is the preferred language at University, just look at benchmaks or analyze the taffic of questions here at EE. Pascal is being deprecated in favor of C, Java and others less commercial like Perl and Python.
As I said, vb6 is a "dead" language with lots of vices. A person who learns vb6 will be severely damaged and will have dificulties when trying to learn more modern languages (we see lots of cases here at EE). Web sites dedicated to vb6 are being closed every day and Microsoft doesn't support it. Moreover, where you will get a copy of vb6 compiler?
I think all these is not necessary, it will be more valuable to teach your kid a "real-world" language. Maybe a web-related will be more useful, so he can start to build cool web pages since first day.
@jaime
The languages taught at universities depends on where your university is located. Europe and Brazil are hotbeds of Delphi development and I don't see Pascal use diminishing in those regions.
=================
The reason I recommended a typeless language is to simplify the teaching of the program structures. This is true for both adults and kids. Pascal is fine as a second language, but it is too complicated for rapid assimilation of programming skills.
Dear xannus,
Teching a language to a kid is an adventure. Why not make it fun for them? Please check Alice.
"Alice is a free teaching tool designed as a revolutionary approach to teaching and learning introductory programming concepts. The Alice team has developed instructional materials to support students and teachers in using this new approach"
Alice is based in OOP, therefore making it a friendly software to learn the basics of programming and then moving to either Java or C.
To Teach Computing, a New Tool Calls on The Sims
http://chronicle.com/artic
Alice Software Homepage
http://www.alice.org/
Have an excellent day!
-JJ
>>The reason I recommended a typeless language is to simplify the teaching of the program structures.
>> This is true for both adults and kids. Pascal is fine as a second language, but it is too complicated for rapid >>assimilation of programming skills.
I will refer to my previous comment:
>>You can think that it can be too complicated for a kid, because they are not as verbose as Basic, but you will be surprised!!! consider a kid nowadays can asimilate at least twice as you at his age.
I have heard the argument of simplicity in many opportunities, but we cannot measure kids born in the computer era in base of our own experience (Atari boys who never saw a computer before). Pascal is intended for us, not for them. An 8-yo kid can build a full website with Javascript code and Flash, and even DB support.
Thanks All
Wonderful input, all useful.
After tireless surfing and comparison, I have eased the pain and found my solution. I am going to use Eclipse Java. You are right. Today's kids will be able to rise to the challenge with good supervision.
To start them off, I found a great text input reader that I put in a static class:
System.out.println("Ask your name..");
String name;
int age;
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
// Reads a single line from the console
// and stores into name variable
System.out.println("Hello.
name = in.nextLine();
// Reads a integer from the console
// and stores into age variable
System.out.println(name+",
age=in.nextInt();
in.close();
// Prints name and age to the console
System.out.println("Hello "+name+". You are "+age+" years old.");
Dear xannus,
It's good you decided for Java! It's a really good programming language. I think you should check Lejos Project, which is a project based in how to teach kids about programming with toys (little robots) that can just walk, turn, see, hear, etc. It's based in Java!
Try it out!
http://lejos.sourceforge.n
Best regards,
-JJ
Dear xannus,
Here's a link of a example of Lejos Mindstorms project. People is supposed to program the robot features, and it's really kids friendly.
Have a good day!
-JJ
http://www.youtube.com/wat
Use small basic (www.smallbasic.com)
It is really similar to BASIC we learn on 8 bit computers...
Programming can be fun again... :)
small basic official website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/
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by: ashok111Posted on 2009-08-19 at 13:19:13ID: 25136875
You can start with VB.NET command line application.