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Re: [school-discuss] programming for junior high



If you're looking for an industrial language, I would recommend Java. It is easy to learn, easy to accomplish a wide variety of tasks with, and fosters a healthy approach to programming (no flames please - private opinion here!) .

As for books, Bruce Eckel's books are pretty good. His "thinking in Java" is one of my favourites. And they are all downloadable for free:
http://mindview.net/Books/DownloadSites

If you're looking at educational languages, I would consider ToonTalk (http://www.toontalk.com/). Its not free, but its pretty close to free, and you can get a beta licence. Although originally designed for younger children, we're using it with 11 -14 year olds, providing them with interesting challenges in modelling mathematical and scientific concepts, and teaching them a few sophisticated programming tricks at the same time.

best,

- Yishay

Wm.G.McGrath wrote:

Hello,

Can anyone recommend a good introductory programming book for a boy
in junior high? Any decent programming language would be good.
bill


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