Programming languages for beginners
blog.borud.no
Programming languages for beginners
1–10 of 12 posts
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#2My first two were Logo and VBA. (I don't really count the tiny bits of dabbling in Basic. I got bored by hello world.)
I'd say both of these meet his criteria. But neither of them got me hooked. It wasn't until I started on Perl to help a friend parse chat logs that I really started getting into programming.
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#3I originally learned to code with QBASIC and then C but if I had to do it all over again I would pick a language with a REPL (so ruby, python, lisp etc.) That speeds up the understanding of the language dramatically in my opinion. Being able to instantly experiment and get results is priceless.
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#4My first two were Logo and VBA. (I don't really count the tiny bits of dabbling in Basic. I got bored by hello world.) I'd say both of these meet his criteria. But neither of them got me hooked. It wasn't until I started on Perl to help a friend parse chat logs that I really started getting into programming.
It Logo and VBA meet "my criteria" I must be terribly bad at getting my point across.
Kinda suprised to see a random blog post by me end up on Hacker News. If I had known I would have made more of an effort :-)
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#5I originally learned to code with QBASIC and then C but if I had to do it all over again I would pick a language with a REPL (so ruby, python, lisp etc.) That speeds up the understanding of the language dramatically in my opinion. Being able to instantly experiment and get results is priceless.
I wonder if a REPL might be counterproductive in a first language. Everyone seems to agree that the ability to produce a "thing" quickly and easily is important. In contrast every time I see an tutorial or introduction to a language with a REPL making a thing is always de emphasized in preference for showing off the language facilities.
Well except Logo which was all about making art "things."
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#6An evaluation of the usual suspects would have been more interesting. I'd also suggest: start with a small language that doesn't surprise people -- like lua maybe.
Anyway, I personally learned much from my early exposure to Pascal (after having learned BASIC as first language), which was designed as a teaching language that doesn't meet any of those requirements.
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#7I originally learned to code with QBASIC and then C but if I had to do it all over again I would pick a language with a REPL (so ruby, python, lisp etc.) That speeds up the understanding of the language dramatically in my opinion. Being able to instantly experiment and get results is priceless.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but didn't QBASIC actually have a REPL?
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#8My first two were Logo and VBA. (I don't really count the tiny bits of dabbling in Basic. I got bored by hello world.) I'd say both of these meet his criteria. But neither of them got me hooked. It wasn't until I started on Perl to help a friend parse chat logs that I really started getting into programming.
It Logo and VBA meet "my criteria" I must be terribly bad at getting my point across. Kinda suprised to see a random blog post by me end up on Hacker News. If I had known I would have made more of an effort :-)
Woops. I totally missed this one:
> It has to be a "real" language. As in: a language that is actually used by a significant number of people in paid jobs.
Either way, as first languages go, they're not bad, as they let you get those immediate results. There's pretty minimal fluff. (I think. To be honest, I couldn't write anything in either of them, anymore.)
I suppose you could call them oddball, though.
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#9aka php
Re: Programming languages for beginners
#10aka php
PHP certainly is instant gratification, but its marriage to the web server sort of makes it a bit domain specific (though, it is possible to use it outside the web sever. it just never caught on). mostly I do not recommend PHP because it is messy. there are far better languages that share similar syntax that are cleaner, more consistent and have both better libraries an better mechanisms for managing libraries.
one of the languages I specifically was thinking of as a bit annoying is Java. before you are good to go, you need to set up the JVM, sort out your classpath ("help! what's a classpath!?"). then, when you are ready to program you instantly have to think in terms of classes and you are thrust head first into what "static" means etc. and dear god what a bucketload of frustration you are in for if you ask for advice and end up trying to make heads or tails or Eclipse or, god forbid, Maven.