[TriLUG] Teaching Kids to Program

[Nikolas Everett via TriLUG]

On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 9:53 AM, Tadd Torborg via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
wrote:

> I'm pretty old-school, doing assembly and C mostly.  I might not be
> familiar with the best choice.  My suggestion is that you ponder how easy
> each of the choices is from a few other perspectives.
> Does it have syntax?  Are errors in coding easy to read and understand?
> Is it easy to use error-output to help fix the problem?
> Once the program is able to be run, can you trivially analyze what is
> happening/did happen or add programmatic features to diagnose the
> execution?  i.e. stdout, blinking lights, log files.
> Does it lend itself to real-time behaviors?  communicating with other
> devices, fetching and parsing web pages, controlling servos & motors,
> reading buttons.
>
> Can you make copies of your product?  Reproduce hardware? Deliver code to
> friends?
> Can you show it off in another location?  I.e. is the platform portable?
> Does the choice teach the skills you want?  
>
> Will it track your cats while you are at work?
>
>   Tadd
>
>
Ooh Tadd, how I've missed you.

I suppose you could reword all that as:
1. Will it solve a problem that the person you are teaching is interested
in?
2. Is it easy to debug when you write an invalid program?
3. Is it easy to debug when your program is doing something wrong?
4. Will it run where you want it to run?

Python is pretty good for all of these. Except when you want it to run on
an embedded system (C/ASM/Lua of all things) or in a web page (JavaScript
or go home, really).



Nik