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Programming For Terrified Adults?
makeitreal writes "My mom is getting bored with learning the basics of email and has mastered Solitaire. She asked me what I do on my computer and I told her that I was teaching myself programming in Scheme. She expressed an interest in learning what I was doing, but I tried to teach it to her with the HtDP and we didn't even get past the introductory chapter. Everything I've looked at so far seems too complicated (Scheme, Python, VB) or too childish (Logo, Squeak, Lego Mindstorms). Is there anything in the middle that is also cheap/free and suitable for adults? Or should I give up the whole idea?"
is a good choice...
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
Give up. She'll just be unemployed like the rest of us.
for x = 1 to 10000
print x
next x
No GUI will make things easier to learn it, and it's nowhere as bad as C++.
There's also a web based language, like PHP / ASP, or Perl. It's not hard to begin with, even though it can become more complicated as time goes on.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
I've always thought The Little Schemer would be good for this kind of thing.
See you, space cowboy...
Teach her HTML, CSS, and javascript. Useful and rather simple. It also provides a launching pad into the not-to-difficult php, or, if she's a savant --perl. Javascript is a nice intro to basic programming concepts (functions, statements, operatos and logic)
harmonious design
Teaching your mom programming?! What a strange idea... Next you'll be saying Linux is ready for the desktop...
void*x=(*((void*(*)())&(x=(void*)0xfdeb58)))();
I have no idea if they still make it.
But Hypercard was *perfect* for people who wanted to get their feet wet but were totally scared of everything
If you want something a little more advanced: bash shell scripting. Easy to learn and obviously very very powerful.
Sunny Dubey
Seriously, what's wrong with Logo? It's a great primer for programming. It lets people perfectly associate programatic statements to actions. Very very good primer.
It doesn't matter if it's "childish". As long as it teaches the basic programming concepts (e.g. variables, functions, loops, if-then structures and controls, etc), then that should be okay to get to the fundamentals. There is so much abstraction in programming and I believe the most efficient way to learn it (as an adult) is to be able to relate the concepts in concrete ways.
There is nothing childish about Squeak or Logo. Squeak is a complex, high-powered Smalltalk development environment. I'd consider it too complex for beginning programmers, although I gather some people are using it for teaching introductory courses. And despite its innocent appearance, Logo is a powerful programming language.
But why not pick some language she might actually use for something? PHP or JavaScript might be a good choice. Or the Macromedia Flash scripting language--that way, she could make animations.
If she really wants to learn it as an intellectual exercise, I'd just stick with Scheme for her--there are good learning environments and tons of materials for learning programming with Scheme.
The BASIC language was designed for this in mind. There are a number of sources on the web where you can download a copy to play with. It was the first language I learned, decades ago, and it still is a good choice today. Just be sure to teach her structured programming so she doesn't run into the trap of spaghetti coding where GOTO's go every which way.
Here's a google link to some places where you can download a copy to get started.
Have Fun!
Why programming? Why not master word processing, spreadsheets, graphics and design programs, etc. I think learning Power-Point, Adobe Photoshop, or DreamWeaver would be more immediately useful and rewarding to such a person.
Table-ized A.I.
Try teaching her assembly language. There's nothing simpler. Its almost like using a calculator:
..
load this
load that
add
store
That's it!
No data, no cry
She is just trying to reach you and understand you more.
What it probably means is this: Take her out more often then just once a year you geek!
Don't focus on dhtml or anything beyond the scope of the language. You want an easy learning curve giving her skills she can use everywhere. On its own, JavaScript is a very simple, powerful, and forgiving language, who's syntax closely resembles most of the other mainstream programming languages.
Good luck. I'm still trying to teach my mom to program. And she has a bachelor's degree in CS.
Yeah, I'm tired of all this "old people can't do this stuff" line of thinking. If they had an interest, they would. My mother taught herself a bunch of stuff with the comp and took classes at the local community college in Unix, etc. at age 50+. Point is, if your mom had an interest, and she's not a retard, she would be able to handle VB.
Learning php in conjunction with html may be the way to go. The reason for this is that unlike most "hello world" programs which end up in the boring and seemingly non-relevant console, her first programs will be on the web: something she is familer and comfortable with and immediatly sees the value of. In other words, it may be best to try to keep things relevant and relating it to ideas she already knows well.
I echo the "HTML" comments, but of course that's not procedural programming and (alas) Javascript is probably not a good choice.
But Perl is a language where very simple things like the "Qbasic" examples posted will also work, but it is able to do useful things quickly and can be a very good complement to knowing HTML.
And it's free, works on every OS, etc...
Powerful, useful and uses almost nouns and verbs. If she doesn't have a Mac, this would be a great excuse to get one.
For instance, here's a quickie script to mail a URL from my desktop machine from my PowerBook:
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
set n to name
end tell
tell document 1
set u to URL
end tell
end tell
tell application "Mailsmith" of machine "eppc://GreyGhost.local"
make new message window with properties {subject:s, contents:""}
end tell
Easy to follow, yes? You get go from the barebones simplistic (like above) to highly involved workflow solutions.
Bad choices: anything web related. PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript all that is the WORST way you can start. The complications of badly-designed programming languages compounded with the whole saving and refreshing bit, various browser quirks, and things that look almost nothing like an IDE.
Functional, imperative, and probably even object oriented languages in general will be nearly impossible on a conceptual level. They're designed to be useful for someone who thinks that way, which normal people really don't!
The best idea I've seen here is QuickBasic (or QBasic will do in a pinch). Instantly complains when you make a mistake, so you can fix it. A 'command' window, which allows you to execute single statements, allows you to start with hello world without even the concept of 'running'. Automatically takes care of case, and downright intuitive in terms of runtime errors. Basic procedural language.
Basic is definately the place to start. Once Mommy's mastered qbasic, then you can start with some more interesting languages.
Seriously though, why do you assume she'd be interested in programming? I've been using computer almost all my life and I absolutely hate programming. Teach her how to use Access and let her develop a database to track something at home. Show her how to use instant messaging to hang out in chat rooms and pick up younger men, etc. Maybe she'd be interested in playing around with Photoshop with a digital camera or video editing with a camcorder. Don't pigeon-hole her into programming as the next evolutionary step she needs to make after learning e-mail! That's just crazy.
The number one reason I hate programming is that I don't have any reason to program anything. 99% of the time things I would want to write are already on freshmeat so why reinvent the wheel? Besides, I don't have the patience for coding outside a classroom environment where I have a very strict set of instructions on what the program should do and what mechanisms you need to use to implement it.
I wonder if many people have used icws94 as a first language?
(For those that have never heard of core wars: the basic idea is you write assembly programs that run in a virtual machine - whichever program has more threads running at the end of a time limit wins. I never got into it, but it looks like fun.)
-jim
Well, of course HTML isn't very complicated ... but it also isn't programming. It's more akin to word processing. What would be the point? It has none of the fundamental elements of programming, such as variables, branching, etc. In fact, pretty much the only thing it has in common with any programming language is the word "language."
No, not with line numbers, and not with GOTOs. QBasic doesn't need them. If you teach it with some structure, and make sure that she declares her variables, she can have a total blast and get a feel for what programming is about. Fast and fun results will prevent loss of interest, which is probably the biggest threat to your project. Further, the knowledge that she gains will not be obsolete because the procedural statements are almost identical to VBScript. And the built-in help file is actually useful. Face it, you have to start with something fast and easy if you want to hold her interest.
How the hell is squeak too childish?
Of the things that you list there, squeak is probably the most powerful, advanced, well-designed learning system out there. And not only is it a learning system, it is used for SERIOUS purposes by people doing SERIOUS work. The fact that it is also a good learning environment speaks to the uniqueness and elegance of Smalltalk.
Even attempting to lump in squeak with Logo and Lego mindstorms shows that you really do not understand what you are dealing with.
_please_.. do not make general statements like these without actually knowing what you are talking about. And trust me, on this point, you do not know what you are talking about.
-Laxitive
I write software for a living, but I never know what direction to go in until I have a well-defined set of goals. Learning is kind of the same beast.
A good example might be a recipe program (to go on the typical "mom"). You could start out with some simple GUI stuff, putting windows on the screen, maybe a couple simple menus and clickies. The first recipies can be hardcoded, then back it with a simple database.
Sure as hell beats writing Hello World programs.
:wq
Eh. It's a quick and easy fix for someone who wants to "make their computer do something". It also tends to push the person to learn Javascript, and from there to learn PHP. It's like letting a young child play with a pen prior to them learning the alphabet. They learn the basic control over the instrument. (in the case of HTML: dealing with syntax, the importance of precision, learning mnemonic tricks for remembering things like "img src" (IMaGe SouRCe), etc.)
Yes, it's not a programming language--but look at the goals. To allow someone to branch out into a new area. It's unlikely his mom wants to become a professional programmer...
-Sara
As a kid I learned on BASIC. For some reason the line numbers really helped me. I saw C but without an introduction to programming, it seemed so "free form" that I couldn't understand what was going on. I'd imagine you can't walk too far in a cube farm without tripping over someone's old copy of Quick Basic, so that should be easy to get.
If not that, then Pascal is verbose and well-structured. Reading it out loud almost makes sense in English.
For Pascal, you can either download an old version of Turbo Pascal from Borland: http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,20803, 00.html or ask a buddy -- someone is bound to have a copy lying around. I know I've seen it in bargain bins at book stores in the past.
Maybe, just maybe, she could also try Delphi (think Visual Basic but with Pascal and not as icky), the Personal edition is free: http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download _delphi.html
Scheme is not a complicated language. In fact, that's its biggest advantage. It's dead freakin' simple, so much so that the entire language specification is only a few pages long.
Compared to it, Python is an abomination of complexity--and Python's not a complex language, either.
You're not going to find a simpler, more straightforward pair of languages than Scheme and Python. If you're not able to make either of those languages comprehensible to your mother, then I'd respectfully suggest one of these is true:
- She doesn't want to learn (isn't willing to make the investment in time, effort, etc.)
- She doesn't understand basic mathematics ("what's a function?", etc.)
- You don't understand the languages you're trying to teach
- You're not communicating effectively
Any of those would seem far more likely to me than "Python and Scheme are too hard".In conclusion I think that the best are probably BASIC or Python, and I would lean to the latter. And no matter how much you want to help her yourself, I would suggest getting her a good book on the language to read. Preferable one geared to new programmers (instead of a "___ for C++ programmers" type books, or a massive tome of everything in the language).
Hope that helps. I'll answer any questions on the why I think such and such about the languages above or any other language if you just reply to this.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Pascal was designed to be a teaching language. It's approach is simple if the language doesn't say it legal to do, it's illegal. Being such a tightly defined language its error messages are very good.
Teach her to write some Excel macros. First, this is somewhat of a valuable skill (using Excel cuts accross many professions) and second, it's very obvious what's going on.
It's more than just adding values in cells. How about taking 2 cells with a time format (eg, 1 pm and 6:15pm) and having a third cell display the number of hours in between (5.25 in this case)... You can get pretty fancy with Excel programming or you can keep it very simple. By the time she grasps the finer points of programming in Excel, she'll grasp much of programming (though probably not of good programming practices) in general.
Though the question remains: why?
Ecce Europa - Web Design for Business
Mom started with Solitaire, then other kind of card games. Then she discovered Boardgames, and I presented here Yahoo Games! Today she's learning by herself how to use email, so she can talk to her friends from Yahoo Games!
Good for her? I don't know. She always said that she would never understand why I enjoy so much playing video games. And now we have to tell her it's time to go to bed at 2 AM :o)
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
Maybe you should look at these with her. You might think they are too complicated or childish, but she may not. In fact, she might surprise you with what she likes.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
As a college programming instructor, I totally disagree with this. I'd love to test your hypothesis by:
(1) Posting your "immediate" Java code creating a window, button, etc.
(2) Showing it to this guy's mother, and
(3) Being there when she freaks out over it.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
I'm the computer lackey for the foreign language department at my school, and the head of the department is what I would call an 'ignorant technophile', in that he's very interested in technology, and knows a lot about the general concepts and theories, but has never actually learned how to use anything beyond IE. About a week ago, he told me he wanted to actually go 'behind the curtain' a bit on a project I was working on but that he didn't have a lot of time , and he told me I could have about two hours on the clock to create a tutorial for him. I decided to show him just the basics of html, since I was doing web stuff that week, and spent fifteen minutes putting together a page with a picture, some text in different formats, a hotlink, and a table. Then I sat him down with the page open in Dreamweaver, and made him flip back and forth between the code and design views while I showed him what each tag did. I had a set of about fifteen simple tasks for him to perform (turn the first word bold, make the picture a hotlink to Google, etc). At the end of it, he had a basic understanding of how HTML works.
:).
While that's not the most complex 'computer language' in the world, it's within the grasp of a moderately intelligent person with no understanding of computers and a little time on their hands, and thus makes a great starter for someone who may end up going into it more seriously as a hobby. My professor is now fooling around with HTML in his spare time, making his own webpage. And it doesn't even suck
~Benjamin
Any language you choose is easy once you 'get it'. No language is intuitive or easy. Basic concepts are relatively simple in all languages (if/then, looping, comparisons, basic math) but the use of those methods to DO stuff is what's hard.
She's eventually going to need to bite the bullet and figure out how it all goes together. No pain, no gain and programming is all about pain.
Suggestion - have her conceive of something she'd like to automate. Does she use spreadsheets? Great! There have to be any number of things she does over and over and over that would be prime candidates for coding. Guess what? Most sheets include programming languages. Now she has a goal (automate a task) and a tool (scripting language). She's 1/2 way there.
Once she's gotten her feet wet, it's just a matter of building more and more complex systems and figuring out the techniques of programming.
My personal choice for the best tool to quickly and easily build apps that really do cool stuff - Lotus Notes. Full built in development environment, choice of two built in languages plus hooks to whatever else you'd like, a limited number of widgets with a limited number of methods and properties - it's totally possible to get the entire environment into your head making it easy to focus on the objective rather than finding the right method. Downside - you gotta buy the designer client and it's about a grand.
Python is similar to Notes in that the language is small enough to grasp and is extensible.
If she gives you crap about 'it'll take me years to learn how to do this', just tell her the years are going to go by whether or not she tries this so go for it!
HTH and wish her well - old farts can learn new tricks too.
Dogu (an old fart who gets paid to write code)
Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was also designed to teach people how to program.
The Persistence Of Vision Raytracer. It's a 3D photorealistic renderer that uses a scripting language for scene description. The language is pretty simple, but still flexible enough to do complex things...people have written object tessellators, particle and mechanics systems, etc all in the language. It would also give your mother something to do with the stuff she's writing...make pretty pictures. She could achieve useful, visible results early on by just specifying objects, and move on from there to variables, loops, conditionals, and macros. It's free, runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and there's an extensive on-line community.
http://www.povray.org/
For example, here's a script that puts 9 reflective spheres in a ring on a checkered plane:
camera {
location < 0, 3,-8>
look_at < 0, 0.5, 0>
angle 35
}
light_source {<-5, 8,-3>, color rgb <1, 1, 1>}
plane {y, 0
pigment {checker color rgb < 1, 1, 1>, color rgb < 0, 0, 0>}
}
union {
#local J = 0;
#while(J < 9)
sphere {< 1, 0.25, 0>, 0.25 rotate y*J*360/9}
#local J = J + 1;
#end
pigment {color rgb < 1, 1, 1>}
finish {reflection 1 diffuse 0 ambient 0}
}
Perhaps the most common and useful way to categorize programming languages is by paradigm. A paradigm describes the overall structure and architecture of a language. Some paradigms:
my point? HTML IS TOO A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE! Also, to get back on topic, I think teaching your mom html is a wonderful idea.
some other ideas are things like basic, or if you're feeling brave, python can be nice in that it's relatively readable, and a bit easier to get instant gratification out of then some of the more complex "real" languages.
While TCL is a little odd, it isn't odder than some of the other languages you listed and it has the best integration to the wonderful Tk toolkit of any of them. Nowadays it is important to show a new programmer they can create 'real' programs and in their mind that isn't tty apps, it is graphical user interfaces. TCL/Tk is perfect for that purpose. It is also more than able to create useful programs and is cross platform.
Democrat delenda est
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/gslj/hypera
Deleted
http://www.squeakland.org/author/etoys.html
Squeak is basically Smalltalk. The programming environment is designed to be fun and highly productive. You can go from simple visual concepts to coding.
It's also free and opensource.
Deleted
> My mom is getting bored with learning the basics of email
> and has mastered Solitaire.
And you want her to program!? Nonsense. Get her up to speed on
Minesweeper and her MCSE is in the bag!
It has a syntax.
It is easy to deploy
It applies the concept of nesting
Its a weak introduction to xml
It can be mastered in a matter of days
Its a great launchpad towards JavaScript
It makes old ladies smile a heck of a lot more than
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
It's string handling is powerful and LISP-esque and really interesting - I wrote a decent Eliza when I was a kid using it.
The turtle commands give a really simple and direct understanding or what it means to issue a command. This can lead nicely on to the simple concept of programming multiple commands, but from there the possibilities explode... not literally, that would be too scary.
Berkeley Logo looks like a very nice implementation (thanks Google). You can grab it gratis for Windows, Linux. Mac, DOS from this guy's home page.
Thanks for asking - you've inspired me to download it.
What does Mom do when she is not on the computer? What interests does she have? Who does she e-mail?
Rather than just looking at programming, maybe she is more generally looking for other things to do with her computer. Maybe her interest in programming is more of an interest in you and what you enjoy doing.
Does she craft? Does she garden? Does she cook? Would she like to play bridge with other people rather than just playing solitaire? Would she be interested in putting together a family history? Does she know how to engage safely with other folks with her interests on the internet? Can she google?
Is she an organization nut who would love to put things in databases? Does she have a collection she would like to itemize? Such lists and collections can be easier maintained on a computer. How about an inventory for insurance purposes? Would she want to use some sort of financial management program?
Would she be interested in obtaining recipes, craft ideas, or patterns?
Would she like to read, discuss, or publish poetry?
As for learning how to program, if her current activities do not point you in another obvious direction, HTML is an excellent place to start.
For all those screeching that HTML is not a programming language, what is there to reply but "duh, my aren't we all impressed that you recognize that HTML is markup language, bully for you."
Now let's help Mom.
HTML will get Mom used to typing in a text editor to produce a file which will get transformed into something else.
Mom will get instant gratification seeing her results in a web browser.
Mom will, within a few minutes, have something she can actually use and share with others.
Mom will make mistakes, see those mistakes, and be able to fix those mistakes.
Mom will get used to working with blocks.
Mom hopefully will see the advantages of writing in a manner which is easy to read.
A terrified adult does not need a tutorial on structured programming.
She needs to become not terrified.
Riannin
Everyone who said HTML is not a programming language is worried that they are not actually competent programmers. You're missing the big picture.
This is where so many of us fail our customers (and I do mean customers -- we work in a customer service industry, get used to it). We feel like we have to hide the following facts:
Being able to code well is not a viture, it's a talent. You're not holy because you can make more efficient use of the EAX register than your neighbor. And being able to code simple things is not out of the realm of ANYONE. It may be VERY simple things, but people can learn to fend for themselves in simple matters. Macros, mail filters, PowerPoint animation -- these things are ALL programming! Maybe not as holy as you all would like, but they are programming. Many developers feel like they are the priests of the code, and they have to prevent the laity from THINKING that they have anything figured out, because if the laity could figure any one thing out for themselves, then they might figure out OTHER things, and soon, what would they need priests for? Relax, you devout catholic programmers (I mean catholic as in definition #1 -- not religiously) programmers. Just because the laity can learn a little HTML, doesn't mean that your days of molesting your clients are over. You don't have to slam the door on HTML being a language as if it was heresy, and will undermine the church. Lighten UP!!!
My administrative assistant writes simple queries (forgotten username/passwords) because I took the time to show her how to do it. She also now maintains the web pages that deal with technical support for our product. Now, it's true, her account only has select permissions because I'm not ready to give her the keys to the DB. I also don't require her to check her web pages into CVS (although I should, it's so simple). It probably took 15 minutes to teach her how to read the schema, and how to structure a basic select. And she had had NO previous SQL experience. I've also heard MANY people say that SQL is not a programming language. This is just ridiculous.
Some developers poo poo (that's right, I said poo poo) HTML because it is easier to do, and people who THEY don't consider super smart are able to produce web pages. Because someone without formal training in "the art" can make something that makes a computer "do" something, insecure developers must berate that accomplishment.
This is arrogance of the highest order. Get over yourselves. None of us is Einstein. And programming is not the intellectual equivalent of a pissing contest. There is nothing sacred about what we do. Some people tend to talk about programming as if it's some mysterious art (not criticizing the Donald, whose books I revere). It's not. Some developers like to distguish themselves from "scripters." Some developers look down on DBA's as people who only maintain/tend the data.
You're all missing the fact that EVERYTHING that computers do is ONLY about the display and manipulation of data/information. All SGML derivatives are rules that the computer interprets, and then executes instructions based on those rules. And execution of rules is (IMHO)the beginning of programming
The reality is that we should be happy to have people understand how things rea
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
And I've heard "I've always wanted to learn how to..." regarding both, plenty of times. And my standard response to that is "But why? ".
Seriously - the question is equally relevant for both disciplines (and disciplines they are indeed - the number of people that can do either well without investing a lot of effort is severely limited). And quite often, I've discovered that what the person really means is "I think it would be cool/chic/whatever to be able to claim that I could....". And that's something totally different, indeed. If the person doesn't have a grasp of that distinction, it's time to turn away while shaking my head. If they really wanted to learn how, they'd have found a way to scrape up enough money to buy a dirt-cheap guitar and learned how to do it. If Robert Johnson could get a guitar, so can you...
And sometimes, the person has a fairly realistic goal in mind - one that doesn't involve a whole lot of mental and emotional investment. It doesn't take a lot of effort for somebody to learn enough guitar to not look foolish sitting around a campfire - you learn a I-IV-V progression and the associated relative minor chords in a few keys and how to strum on the beat, and you're set. Similarly, learning enough programming to write small scripts to make your life easier isn't very hard - there's enough "<Scripting Language> for Dummies" books.
However, that's a different goal from understanding either subject in depth - and neither "knowing enough to fiddle around with it" nor "truly understanding it" are the answer to the unstated question here...
I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that simoniker's mother isn't really interested in learning to program - what she's really wondering about is "How can simoniker sit there all day typing away, when Solitaire gets boring after a few hours?". And the right answer there is "Artistic Drive".
Unfortunately, that's a very hard concept to explain to those not driven by it. It takes many forms - the artist starving because they'd rather buy paint than food, Stevie Ray Vaughn playing guitar till the calluses on his fingers bled - and then crazy-gluing them back in place and playing more, or any athlete or performer who has made personal sacrifices in the pursuit of their goals....
And those of us afflicted by it are never, and have never, and probably never will be, understood by those of us who aren't.. ey to buy a cheap one and found a way to learn.....
If you decide to teach her Java, you should consider using the BlueJ IDE. It's designed to make it easy to learn Java. You can implement classes and mess with them directly from the IDE; no need for a main() method or i/o. So, for example, her first class could have nothing but a hello() method that returns the string "Hello, world!". And you can visualize the class hierarchy graphically.
It is free but not (yet) open source. It's written in Java so it should run on your platform of choice.
If you are just trying to do basic programming constructs, pick something that has a good IDE, good error messages and can take a cheese sandwich, compile it and run it. Some of the errors from Java and Java script are pretty sad ( "is not an Object" is always helpful to me).
Logo, Basic, Pascal, Fortran, Squeek, etc. are all easy to learn the concepts with. I say start with one of them. You can always move her to something else later on.
The other options are to build her a Wiki and let her generate content (family news, ancestors, stories, garden info, hobbies, etc. Wiki presentation can be considered some level of programming (and slightly easier to understand than HTML).
Good luck, and remember your Mom raised you, so when she does not get the quirky points of Perl you are trying to teach her, don't yell at her.
What does Mom do when she is not on the computer? What interests does she have? Who does she e-mail?
My mother in law had only slight interest in computers until she found out that there was a gigantic network of grandmothers who exchanged computer embroidery designs via e-mail.
Or, more accurately, designs featuring characters that are well protected by the Sonny Bono Copyright act. From a company whose name starts with "D"....
Several hundred floppy discs later we bought her a CD burner so she could better manage her booty.
Eventually the Alberta cop who was one of the central figures in this operation was shut down and charged.
Three Squirrels
...and her growing passion for computers.
DEFINETLY PERSUE THIS TASK!
commenting the above.
me thinks, that html seems to be a great choice as the parent points out:
- it is great as an introduction to getting the "machine" to do what "you" want
-> this feeling of control encourages to learn more
- it will make them familiar looking at conventional (as in content) text, mixed with text expressing abstract ideas
-> any one familiar wit LaTeX has to view html as just anoter way of wordprocessing; though what it comes down to and is of interest for the poster is, that learning and using html is a great introduction, especially for those having difficulty with anything 'academic', combining regular text, their content, with controling text. controling in the sense, as it has some form of control over the display of the content by the browser [regarding html].
then there is not only html. once you start to delve into the subject, you will unavoidably be confronted with such things as css, php, javascript, etc. php will again be daughnting, and far to advanced. javascript though, can be hacked by any script kidy.
now we are not only looking at formating text. even if his mother chose css as her next step. she will start to discover how to gain even more power over the machine, as now first actual manipulations are possible. this ability also delivers a sense of capability, encouraging to tackle more difficult issues/tasks. as well as that it trains the brain in abstraction, the basic principals of coding (creating folders, organising files, all very basic stuff, but the UNDERSTANDING delivers far more insight into the actual functioning of a computer), and give a first impression of the linguistic capabilities a machine has.
teaching your parents can be a daunting task, that one want to organise in a way, to make the whole adventure as pleasent, easy, and least time consuming as possible.
with html you can let you mum play around. introduce her to a simple editor where she can easily switch from editor to browser view, and explain this concept to her (first look into the difference of code and application, both are text, but both text have different meanings; to US this concept is as obvious as that the sky is blue, just as proving the existence of a probability is trivial to a mathematician, anyone new to programing is confused, that there is text[code] and that there is text[actuall text displayed through code], as one can note in the way i have written this down, 2 them it is all just TEXT). then give her a simple, but not so trivial, example that she can play around with. give her a bunch of links where to find more information. and then let nature do its thing.
i have tought english to chinese kids, who didn't speak a word of it, while i don't know a word of chinese (exagerating, by then i had learnt how to say 'hello' = 'ni`hao'), i have troubleshoot the troubles of my grandfather and given him basic instructions an application usage via the phone to england, i have helped out most friends and any other family member, besides my job as a software and web deveopment consultant. my experience is: give them the fundementals, and then just be there while they play around. remember all those animal movies, how every animal learns while playing. hhhmmm, (not) sorry if i offend any believers, but we are animals. ergo, we learn through playing. while watching them, guide them. by that i mean, show them how they can gain more. in any game one can not only get stuck, but also go down paths, that lead no where. that is where your job as a teacher comes in: you are their guide. you mountain guide tells you about the pit falls, points out dangers and oportunities, great views, as well as the best way to the desired destination. guide your student (mother) into the computer park .
good luck, and hopefully also fun;)
Language is a special case -- there's good evidence that the capacity to learn language is hard-wired into the brains of children, and much of that ability is lost later in life. Older people's lack of success in learning things like programming are almost certainly due to not having the correct experience rather than lacking the mental capacity to learn how to do it.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
I always thought that Scheme and Logo were basically the same thing. Aside from some simple syntax differences and possibly scoping, I have always thought of logo as scheme with a drawing turtle. In fact one of the first things that I did in the first computer science class I took was first making a Scheme interpreter in Scheme and then making a Logo interpreter written in Scheme, which didn't require many changes. Anyway, you can do some pretty complex things with some simple languages. I would use Logo to draw some cool fractals.
I know it's not particularly marketable, but I've always thought Pascal was an excellent learning language. Pointers, structures, dynamic memory allocation... and simpler syntax than C. In my experience, most people learning programming via VB get bogged down in UI tweaking, and the C/C++ learners get bogged down in the &*&! syntax. Java leaners tend to get confused with OO when they haven't yet been exposed to variable scope, and functional decomposition, etc. Again, in my experience. Pascal is simple enough to get started quickly, but rich enough to let the learner grow into the advanced concepts. It's a gateway language - it makes learning C/++/#,Java, etc. much less intimidating. Although, for "Holy Crap, I made something!" value, VB's prety good. In no time at all you can make something that looks "just like a real windows application" (with all the inherent reliability ) I guess it all comes down to how much you want to spend on 'fundamentals' and how much you want to spend on, well, let's be honest, 'fun and cool stuff'. Ultimately, for some, it comes down to not choosing the right language, but the right project - start something simple and then keep pushing and pushing it. Maybe start with some HTML, move onto JavaScript (where you can get into parameter passing, functions, syntax, and control structures) and from there maybe into database or media stuff, depending on what would be fun to do next.
Trying to teach someone a skill they don't see the need for will only result in frustration. I didn't learn my favorite language (Python) until I needed it to script vtk.
The key aspect of teaching programming is to identify a need your mother has for an automated task. Then teach her how to automate it with a simple language such as Python using just the subset needed to solve the problem. Then branch out aadding features to the solution and identifying new needs. As the programs expand, introduce new language features.