Re: [school-discuss] first programming language

[Richard Andrews <bbmaj7@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note: I'm not a teacher - I'm a software engineer.

Python.
It has an interactive mode as well as writing program files. Python has a very
natural syntax. A good language to learn network socket programming (hey!
that's what webservers are sending). Also helps that many modern Linux UI
elements are written in python (eg. panel applets in GNOME). Lots of real-world
code to experiment on.

BASH.
Always there. Interactive mode or program files. Designed for doing productive
things. Very early sense of achievment. But the syntax is arcane for a
beginner. Learning BASH will cause him to naturally learn about all those
related programming languages that people use BASH to call; eg. sed, awk. Have
a look in /etc/init.d/ for plenty of examples.

lisp :)
Personally I think people find lisp difficult because they learned
non-functional languages first (I think it's to my own detriment). Put this one
in the experiments-on-humans category. Definitely cover RPN first.


--- roberto <roberto03@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> hello
> one of the young guys (13 y.o.) i am teaching to as far as regards
> math and physics repeatedly asks me to introduce him to the world of
> programming (and linux in particular) whose he is very fond of ...
> 
> i'd like to ask you which programming language you think it is more
> advisable in this situation
> 
> if the question is too general, please ask me more details
> 
> thank you very much



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