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Best Language for Beginner Programmers?
jahardman asks: "I work at a High School that has recently seen a decline in the number of students that want to take our entry level-programming course in Visual Basic. We have been toying with the idea of having the introduction course be in PHP or Ruby on Rails; but are not convinced that they lead well into higher level languages. Does anyone out there have suggestions as to what would be a better language to start students with? Ideally one that might be more 'enticing' as well?"
I would NOT touch C++ at the novice level - way too much packed into it. Java is lighter and more modular, which is a better design practice. Teach by example, not just by examples.
Really, structure is more important than syntax. Anyone can learn a new syntax, but if they don't grasp structure, they will never grasp programming. For that reason, even Pascal as a teaching language has its good points.
The programming language D seems to have some of the benefits of C++ and C#, without as much overhead, so that might be a candidate too.
Don't go for over-structured languages like Ada - they're as bad for newbies as the totally unstructured ones. (In fact, either extreme is a mental health hazard to all programmers and should be banned under EPA guidelines.)
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It was designed as an introduction to structured programming.
Python wasn't designed as an educational language. Guido explains its origins in the FAQ.
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Give DrScheme a look. Nice graphical IDE, libraries, dead simple syntax. Free. Different language levels to cater to the learning process. And pleanty of introductory texts.
Really! Running programs from Eclipse is dead easy (no Makefiles) as is debugging the stacks (to see the how the clockwork ticking). Very visual, method completion, infopop javadoc, convention enforcing wizards and all (GUI too). Taking up Java with Eclipse is a breeze and Java itself has a nicely documented library for anything you want to play with and explore the basic practices of OOP.
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One more reason why Python is great for teaching is that you get results much faster than in some traditional languages. Of course this is great for everyday programming work, but for students the motivational aspect of rapid development is even more important. There's very little grunt work you need to do before getting into the fun stuff.
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It has a very clean, refined syntax; It can be used equally well as an object-oriented language as a simple procedural scipting language; It is open-source, freely distributed, and cross-platform (so that students will be assured of the ability to install it on their home PC's easily and legally); and while it is easily extended, it has a very useful standard library which will fill the needs of beginning programmers for a few years to come.
Ruby is very similar to Python, and is another excellent choice, although I feel that the documentation for Python (in English, at least) is somewhat better.
Neither PHP nor Rails are good choices for beginning programmers -- while developing web applications is very simple for advanced and intermediate coders, remember that beginners can get into some serious trouble learning a programming language, a query language, and a markup language all at the same time. Perhaps these would be better for a second course.
That you find a book first. In fact - find Head First Java" IMHO the best book to teach teens about programming. Next arm yourself with a woman of renown to teach object orientation, namely Alice, she will amase you and your teens. Lastly, once they have the basics down after the new year, get them up and running Code Rally and the winner of the Grand Prix gets extra points towards that grade!!
Sera
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In addition to that there is pygame. A set of Python modules designed for writing games. It's really simple and easy to use. I think even beginner programmers wouldn't have much trouble making simple games. I wrote a breakout clone that's only 147 lines, I was going to use it to teach a programming class too. There is nothing complicated in it at all, just a few loops, if statements, some rectangle geometry and negating numbers. Elementary, really.
I think Python fits the requirement, more so than any other, for a language "that might be more 'enticing' as well."
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If you teach them Pascal, and don't explain that Pascal does GC, then they will be hosed when they get to a C/C++ course and don't understand why they have to manage memory.
Pascal does not do GC.
And yes, most of Pascal is cleaer than C
Pascal:
myDates: array [1..10] of Date;
C:
Date myDates[10];
What is the low bound and high bound of myDate in C and in Pascal?
How do you do an array from 99 to 104 in C? You cant
There is plenty stuff where Pascal is FAR clearer than C, its designed to be so, while C is designed to be a portable assembler.
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