

What programming language would you use to teach someone to code? - rbsn
http://rbsn.me/11/teach-someone-to-code/

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rartichoke
I would introduce them to scratch regardless of their age.
<http://scratch.mit.edu/>

When you don't have to deal with syntax and can concentrate on nothing but
logical components it becomes much easier to understand.

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rbsn
Scratch is a great! I do worry that people would then begin to learn a
language and be frustrated by it's syntax. I don't know?

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rartichoke
You have to deal with the syntax of a language regardless.

It's a lot easier to deal with that once you've learned how to program. This
is why more experienced developers have an easier time picking up a new
language.

They already know what purpose an if statement has or how to combine a few
conditions and a loop to do xyz. These are things much easier learned in an
environment that scratch provides you.

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gregmeyer
Ruby is a great start because it provides syntax, can be run locally on
command line and also has many widely available examples you can read and
bootstrap quickly.

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jbrooksuk
JavaScript. Even with its pitfalls and numerous headaches. The first language
I learnt was JavaScript and it made it so much easier to learn others
afterwards.

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manglav
Logo, really gives the fundamentals in an accessible way.

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rbsn
I would probably choose JavaScript, Python or Ruby.

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sonabinu
Python. If the person is a statistician R

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rikacomet
C++ is the best language to understand the basics of programming, its not
easy, but its not that hard either. It will make one's foundation strong from
the get go.

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rbsn
I agree that C++ gives you a great understanding of programming, but I don't
think that people with little or no understanding of programming should have
to worry about types, compilers amongst other things. I feel that C++ is a
great choice for your second, third or even fourth language.

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ankurdhama
Lisp

