Re: [school-discuss] First Programming Language

[Cameron Miller <cdmiller@adams.edu>]

Doug Loss wrote:

> Jennifer Dozar wrote:
> 
> 
>>Python is a good language to start out on.
>>Please don't get into some weird flame/"oh i learnedthis first" kind of
>>list. cause i have had quite anough of that on another list. just a
>>bunch of older guys saying learning Basic or Fortran for an 8 year old!
>>
> 
> Sorry, Jennifer, I just can't resist.  APL! APL!  The ultimate cool, exceedingly
> useless language!  Write entire programs in one line!  Use arcane symbols not
> available on a regular keyboard!  Confuse your friends (if you have any left after
> playing with APL)!
> 
> For the humor-impaired, don't let your students even _see_ APL code until after they
> have some feeling for programming.  APL code can resemble line noise even when it's
> well-written.
> 


I gotta put in my bid for a wee bit of assembly and machine language 
here.  With just 8 or 10 lines and you can gain a lot of insite into the 
workings of the computer itself, and stimulate a lot of curiosity for 
further investigation as well.

 

- cameron

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