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It will make her need to think about the whole program beforehand.That taught me analytical structural thinking so well. Also at some point I realised I could put more lines in between 10 and 20, 9 more lines!
It's a fun environment for them to experiment and mess around with, which helps learning a lot.
i learned AWK... but then QBasic is what made me a programmer.
I have two girls (10,7) and they both enjoy this one. Easy to follow.
As weird as it might sound but I recommend Basic. With line numberings. It will make her need to think about the whole program beforehand.That taught me analytical structural thinking so well. Also at some point I realised I could put more lines in between 10 and 20, 9 more lines!
Also Python's interactive console provides two helpful functions: help and dir, which let you stay in the console even when you have to look up documentation, check properties of an object or find what else is contained in an imported module. There are other shells for Python that provide other functionality like saving your session's input in a file so you can actually write entire programs in Python for later use.
Also there's http://www.inventwithpython.com/, which is aimed at children and lets them create simple games to see results early on.
My first programming language was PHP at age 15, so I never had to make the jump from BASIC, but I've seen people stick with BASIC way past its expiry date just because they were used to it, becoming increasingly frustrated with its limitations. I think Python has the advantage that you don't easily hit a wall like that because you are writing in a "real" programming language from the get-go.
Ask her! First, figure out what exactly she wants to do/make/play with—then pick the best tool for the job. If she just wants to make web pages, set her up with some webspace and then, after she's gotten HTML and CSS down, show her that she can "make things happen" using PHP and Javascript. If she wants to make a game, I would personally recommend starting off not with any raw-coding environment at all. Why? Kids don…
my 8 year old went from tryruby.org to hacketyhack. i have also taught him some basic erlang list concepts - lists:reverse, lists:seq, and functions. he got it right away and found it fascinating. ruby is easier for him because of syntax but he 'got it'.
Install XAMPP from Apachefriends.org and have her start PHP. It's what many schools use for their beginner classes. On Windows, I like PHPDeveloper personal edition for an IDE. It's cheap (or free, I can't recall). PHP is mainstream, and since it's a web technology, she can likely show it off to her friends. It's not hard to find cheap PHP hosting if she ends up building something that she wants to put on the public-…
Come on, PHP is a horrible mess. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's the way it is. Don't start with PHP. I usually leave PHP devs to their own world, but since you suggest spoiling the children, I had to jump in... As for hosting, you could easily host a Ruby/Sinatra app on Heroku to show off for friends.
And don't get me started on naming conventions. Sure, you can adapt to PHP's inconsistencies, but ideally the first language you learn should be reliable and consistent.
BESIDES: if you learn a web language, you have to learn HTML first. And if you want to learn HTML these days, you also have to learn CSS and then JavaScript isn't far off either. In short: you'll have to learn a whole lot of stuff just to get anywhere. If you start coding in a shell and eventually start on GUI code, you only have to worry about what it all looks like on YOUR machine (and if you want to share your code, you can simply (have your daddy) make sure the other person has all the necessary modules in place).