Do you teach people a useless (or highly inefficient) language for the sake of explaining the mechanics of programming languages, or can you teach them something practical instead?

Children do not have the cognitive power to understand and interpret lots of compacted, detailed information. They also lack the attention span necessary to process such info.(please, please read A Child's Understanding of Number to understand this better) You must not try to force difficult language constructs on children lest they learn to despise computers altogether.

Thinking along these lines resulted in languages like LOGO, Dartmouth BASIC, PASCAL, and other 'teaching languages' which explain good programming practices, file I/O, simple data structures, and more. The recent industrial push for programmers has contorted regular learning cycles in colleges and high schools toward languages like C, C++, Java, and Visual Basic -- languages that push the limits of people's understanding (and sometimes utterly confuse people).

What about Perl? I have long been professing that Perl is the ideal language to BOTH educate students AND provide them with professional training. I would suggest easier programs in Perl for starters...mainly scripts that utilize simple GD graphics; and eventually move upward toward more complicated data structures and so forth.

The important thing to remember is that, in teaching either uninitiated programmers or children, is to start small and engender thier interest. This is what LOGO and PASCAL were all about. Using Perl in this fashion teaches the 'CAN' aspect of programming while consciously excluding the many exceptions that exist.

Lastly, if you have spent time searching the market for a children's book on Perl, and you have not found one...haven't you considered writing one yourself (all it really takes is interest, research, time, and proofreaders)?

Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

In reply to Re: Not-So-FAQ about learning Perl by InfiniteSilence
in thread Not-So-FAQ about learning Perl by ichimunki

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