Anonymous Hacker writes "I'm in a bit of a bind. My young teenage son is starting to get curious about
computers, and in particular, programming. Now, I'm a long time kernel hacker,
(Linux, BSD and UNIX). I have no trouble handling some of the more obscure things in the
kernel. But teaching is not something that I'm good at, by any means. Heck, I can't even
write useful documentation for non-techies.
So my question is: what's the best way to encourage his curiousity and enable him to learn?
Now I know there are folks out there with far better experience in this area
than myself. And I'd really appreciate any wisdom you can offer. I'd also be especially
interested in what younger people think, in particular those who are in College,
or High School, now.
I've shown my son some of the basics of the shell, the filesystem, and even how to
do a "Hello World" program in C. Yet I have to wonder if this is the really the right
approach? This was great when I was first learning things. And it still is for kernel
hacking, and other things. Yet I'm concerned whether this will bore him, now that there's
so much more available, and where much of this world is oriented towards a point-n-click.
So, what do you think? What's the best way to for a young teen to get started in exploring this
wonderful world of computers and learning how to program? In a *NIX environment only, please.
I don't, and won't, run Windows."
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I'm a 19 year old comp sci major going into my sophomore year in college. I took 3 years of computer courses at my high school that really helped me develop programming skills. I learned C++ first, then Java; I thought Java was easier to program on, but you might want to expose C++ to him first.
Here is the syllabus for my C++ high school class:
http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang1.html [k12.pa.us]
And my Java: http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang2.html [k12.pa.us]
Each section explains the topic pret
If i was ever going to learn to program besides a rough understanding of BASIC etc.. although thats where most people would start initially, then i would definitely go for the Apple SDK.
Everything is there provided you have a mac which seems to be the trend amongst teenagers these days anyway.
For free you get the SDK, a simulator to test it on and all the hardcore optimization programs.
It is in objective C, which is harder to program but the market seems to be coming up pretty big these days for that be
get teen to learn programming (Score:1)
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