Fw: Re: [seul-edu] Perl for 9th graders]

[Douglas Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

On Sat, 20 Jan 2001, owner-seul-edu@seul.org wrote:

> From: acidbase@netbank.com.br
> To: seul-edu@seul.org
> Subject: Re: [seul-edu] Perl for 9th graders

> On Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 11:29:27PM -0800, Chris Hobbs wrote:
> > On Fri, 19 Jan 2001 20:31:38 -0700
> >  lp <prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us> wrote:
> > 
> > > > A student came to me yesterday and said he thinks he
> needs 
> > > > to learn some Linux, especially Perl.
> > 
> > First, I think it is awesome that a teacher is going out of
> their way to
> > assist this student learn what they want to learn. Bravo!
> > 
> > Second I _love_ perl. It is powerful, quick, and reasonably
> portable
> > between platforms. When I started with Linux, I skipped
> right over shell
> > scripts and do all of my sysadmin scripts with perl, and
> have used it
> > for web sites and data processing as well - it is truly the
> swiss army
> > knife of programming languages.
> 
> I hope not create a flame-war, but...
> 
> > 
> > All that said, I would strongly recommend that if this is
> the student's
> > first programming language, it might be prudent to point the
> student
> > towards a language that is not so, how do I put this,
> Frankenstein like
> > :). Perl, in many ways, takes the best features of several
> programming
> > languages and mixes them together in a very powerful way.
> But an
> > argument could be made that it's nowhere close to
> appropriate for a
> > first language. 
> 
> Students may be create a Frankenstein program only using PERL
> too... And
> I discord about PERL has "best features of several programming
> languages", if this is correct, where is OOP support?
> 
> > I've heard good things about python as a good, powerful
> first language,
> > and java would likely be a good choice as well, as in many
> ways it was
> > written from scratch as an OOP language. Pascal is not
> exactly used in
> > reality commonly, but is an excellent introduction to
> structured,
> > function based programming.
> 
> Yes! d:) Python is good, really have "best features of several
> programming languages" and have a beaultiful sintax. Java is
> (AFAIK) a
> commercial solution. Pascal is nice (and i like very much) and
> could be
> a interesting tool to teach programming technics for students
> (in Brazil
> we use it in College).
> 
> > Now that that's out of the way, I'll answer your actual
> question :).
> > http://www.informit.com/ has a ton of freely available
> content online,
> > including "Sams Teach Yourself Perl 5 in 21 Days, Second
> Edition", which
> > might make a good introductory text for the student. There
> were a total
> > of 8 perl books listed in their free library, including
> several related
> > to using perl in a web environment. Of course, they have
> free books on
> > numerous other IT topics as well, including many on Linux.
> > 
> > HTH,
> > 
> > Chris Hobbs
> > Technology Services Coordinator
> > Silver Valley Unified School District
> 
> Ops! Sorry, but my language is Portuguese and my english is
> *VERY* bad
> yet.
> 
-- 
Doug Loss           The art of medicine consists of amusing the
dloss@suscom.net    patient while nature cures the disease.
(570) 326-3987             Voltaire