Why Johnny can't code

[Pappa]

Surely python would be a good contenter as a replacement for basic to get kids into coding. I'm having a tinker with it at the moment and it is amazingly intuitive after wrestling with C++

I wish the guy who wrote the Learning Perl would write a book for Python.

I wish people who write bad programming books would die.

[Tigger]

Surely python would be a good contenter as a replacement for basic to get kids into coding. I'm having a tinker with it at the moment and it is amazingly intuitive after wrestling with C++

I wish the guy who wrote the Learning Perl would write a book for Python.

I wish people who write bad programming books would die.

Granted.

[Azathoth]

Does anyone still buy programming books? There is more than enough in the way of tutorials online

[Robert_S]

Does anyone still buy programming books? There is more than enough in the way of tutorials online

I like holding a book while working at a computer. There is just an ineffable rightness to it.

[Pappa]

Does anyone still buy programming books? There is more than enough in the way of tutorials online

I like holding a book while working at a computer. There is just an ineffable rightness to it.

Same here. I much prefer a book. Plus I can read sections away from the computer too.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Johnny can't code because Johnny doesn't have enough brain damage to understand that shit. [/obvious]

[Azathoth]

You leave the computer? Just set up another monitor.

[klr]

Does anyone still buy programming books? There is more than enough in the way of tutorials online

I like holding a book while working at a computer. There is just an ineffable rightness to it.

Same here. I much prefer a book. Plus I can read sections away from the computer too.

Confession time. I'm one of the converted who thinks electronic tutorials and references are superior to the printed medium.

[Pappa]

Does anyone still buy programming books? There is more than enough in the way of tutorials online

I like holding a book while working at a computer. There is just an ineffable rightness to it.

Same here. I much prefer a book. Plus I can read sections away from the computer too.

Confession time. I'm one of the converted who thinks electronic tutorials and references are superior to the printed medium.

I know I should agree, I just like holding a book.

[VazScep]

The C family of languages are pretty intuitive and not difficult to pick up once you understand the basic concepts of programming.

Indeed. Kids, we'll start simple. Write a program that prints "Hello World!" on the screen. You need to start this with your include directive, bringing in the header file of the standard input/output library. Then you need to write the signature of your main method, which is your entry point to your application. You'll need to write "int" for the type of your exit code, and remember the return statement. Next, we'll use printf. Actually, hang on! Let's use Java for this. Much better.

First, you'll need a class declaration. Everything in Java goes in a class. It's so intuitive! Remember to make sure the class name is the same as the file name. Could you imagine what would happen otherwise? Next, you want your main method. This is the entry point for your application. It needs to be static since it isn't being called as an instance method. We don't want to have to instantiate any objects to call main, do we! We should give it the "public" accessor modifier, and it has a void return type. The command line arguments, I'm sure you'll guess, are part of the signature and are an array of type String. It's all so intuitive! The best part is that a decent IDE will generate all this code for you! Convenient and intuitive! Not like that Python programming language.

Code: Select all

>> print "hello world!"

Ugh! It doesn't even use curly braces!

[klr]

I was afraid to make that point myself ... ... but yes, there are easier languages to start a kid on than C.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I once took a class in Assembly Language just to have something to do.

[klr]

I once took a class in Assembly Language just to have something to do.

Were you by any chance sane at the time, or were you just your usual deranged self?

[VazScep]

I heartily recommend "Scratch" for teaching kids programming. It was developed at MIT especially for that perpose. It's a drag-and-drop programming environment that does an excellent job of teaching kids all the important programming concepts like variables, loops, conditionals, etc.. All in a way they can pick up easily without being dumbed down in the slightests. I'd recommend having a look at it.

Scratch is Smalltalk, and Smalltalk is nothing like BASIC. The beauty of Smalltalk is that it is simultaneously aimed at kids and at expert programmers. It is, to this day, one of the most powerful high-level languages ever invented.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I once took a class in Assembly Language just to have something to do.

Were you by any chance sane at the time, or were you just your usual deranged self?

At the time I was waiting to go to Purdue, and living in a house on a corner. The other three corners were fields with corn or soybeans. The land behind the house was corn or soybeans. From my second floor room I could see two things.