Introduction to Programming

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I have a 15 year-old son with AS. He's failing in school but I can't get him off of the computer--IM and MySpace. Is this only about his social interests or could I possibly get him interested in programming? What would be a good introductory programming language for him to learn?

Thanks,
Red

It might be beneficial for him to learn the Ruby or Python programming language if he has any aptitude for structured, analytical thinking. Instant messaging and browsing MySpace.com are not exactly intellectual pursuits; doing that has no correlation with programming ability at all. If it did, we'd be seeing tons of teeny-bopper grrlz writing quizzes and flashy screensavers for their grrl power friends in Visual Basic.

I was told to learn Visual Basic as it is a good programming language for beginers.
If you wanted to get him into this then you can get hold of a copy of Visual Basic 6.0 (home edition) and i recomend geting a good book to learn from, such as
SAMS Teach yourself visual basic 6.0 in 24 hours.

Although for starters you could see how he gets along with something simple such as HTML programming.

I have to say though that you should stay away from C and C++ as they are very complex and advanced languages.

If you can get him into programming then it could turn out to be a good carrer for him!
Even if he keeps programming as just a hobby at least he would be doing something more constructive.

If he has trouble understanding those because of toughness, try Liberty BASIC, a throw-off of the DOS BASIC, modified for graphic interfaces, not DOS (a.k.a. Text interface), I started to teach myself at age 12, I'm 15 now and well adept at it.

You can download a trial here, but this only does small sized programs, the silver version, $29.95 (+10 for each CD wanted), can create large-sized programs, but not independent, unlike gold ($49.95), also an add-on asist program (49.95) is avalible.


Oh, yeah, for the gold and the assistant, it's a $69.95 value pack and from Silver to Gold, it's a $19.95 DL.
Glad to help

python - good for starting I guess
C - the fun stuff, not all that easy,,, but can be

he doesn't nescarily have to be a programmer, he could go into network administration and computer repair like I am. However if he's spending time on myspace and IMing people it might not be nescarily an interest in computers but may be addicted to the internet since thats the only place he may feel comfotalbe contacting people but thats a speculation on my part. Anyways VB is a good place to start as far programing. You might also want try HTML/XML as well.

If you want to get him to try Python, I suggest you get a copy of Civ 4. The entire engine is written in python, and he can create mods for the game using it and learn a useful skill at the same time.

Ugh, don't learn VB.

Some variant of C is good. Get a "X for Dummies" book. Let him swallow is pride.

Kind regards,
Chris

Your son appears to be more interested in the internet, as opposed to computers, so perhaps HTML would be a good language for him to start with as it would allow him to find out how websites are written.

W3schools is quite useful as an HTML reference, at least in the beginning.

w3schools is the definite resource for CSS...

Kind regards,
Chris

I'd suggest Java. It is not as hard as C/C++ because it does not involve pointers, but if he learns it, he will easily be able to pick up C/C++. The idea is to ensure that he picks up Object-Oriented Programming concepts early on.

VB.NET (not 6) will allow him to do that, but I have to warn you; there are a lot of bad VB programmers out there and they may instill in him bad habits early on. The reason why is because VB is based on BASIC and that makes a lot of the lighter-weights comfortable because they learned that in high-school. They're going to influence him negatively. Now, it does not follow that every VB programmer is bad, this is just a matter of percentages. So, VB programmers out there who are good, I don't mean you. But I bet you know a few people I do mean...

Visual Basic is pretty neat. Easy too, I picked it up in a matter of days.

MySpace and IM have nothing to do with programming at all. It may only be a source for social interaction at a safe distance. Introducing him to programming may lead to interaction with the open source/hacking community, which is very much based on being helpful and producing good/open code.

On a more technical note, don't ever think of Visual Basic as a good first programming language. It is a ugly, hackish ( in the negative sense ), non-multiplatform, and generally ugly language. Ruby is in my opinion a great first language. Using Ruby on Rails, he could even create his very own MySpace competitor if he wished...