[geeks] Introductory programming language?

[Brian Dunbar]

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Jochen Kunz <jkunz at unixag-kl.fh-kl.de> wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:13:26 -0400 (EDT)
> Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:
>
>> My sister has just expressed an interest in learning some programming.
> Why? What kind of problems does she need / like to solve?
>
> Actually I would start with some software engineering basics first.
> UML, LePUS3, design patterns, ... stuff like this.

If all the lady wants to do is dink around with code .. and have fun
.. that's going to kill her interest real quick.

A compromise between 'study civil engineering before driving a nail'
and 'go bashing along' is How to Design Programs: An Introduction to
Computing and Programming

http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/Book/curriculum.html

It uses Racket for the teaching language (a LISP dialect in the Scheme
family) but .. if you don't tell her it's LISP and supposed to be
complicated your student might do okay.

-- 
Brian Dunbar


"Display some adaptability"