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How To Get a Game-Obsessed Teenager Into Coding?
looseBits writes "I have a friend whose 14-year-old son spends all his time gaming, like any normal teenager. However, my friend would like to find a more productive interest for him and asked me how to get him into coding. When I started coding, it was on the Apple II, and one could quickly write code that was almost as interesting as commercially available software. Now, times have changed and it would probably take years of study if starting from scratch to write something anyone would find mildly interesting. Does anyone have experience in getting their children into programming? How did you keep them interested if the only thing they can do after a week is make the computer count to 10 and dump it on the screen?"
If he is obsessed with games, then you don't have to teach him something he considers useful. Just tell him that coding a linked list will give him 200 exp points.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
How do you get a kid into coding? Guess.
Mind altering drugs?
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Lock him out of his games with a script that will require his learning to code in order to circumvent.
I said "most" games.....Crysis is a benchmarking tool, isn't it? :-)
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
How do you get a kid into coding? Guess.
Take them outside, throw an exception to them and ask them to throw it back?
10 PRINT "FUCK"
20 GOTO 10
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
10 PRINT "FUCK" 20 GOTO 10
That's a great way to learn about a text to speach api.
But teach him to never silently swallow exceptions either, at least not without producing a log once in a while...
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
Since X and Y are the representations for the sex chromosome, I think "X will do Y" soon enough. Better talk about condoms than programming.
I'd say "the touch of a woman," but that's probably insurmountable for you, too.
You're right. I tried with your mom, but she was quite insurmountable.
Living With a Nerd
I was in a programming class once and a fellow student asked me how I had solved a particularly difficult programming problem we had been given. I excitedly told him how I had come up with a clever solution that I was particularly proud of and about how I had awoken my roommate jumping up and down with delight when I did it. My fellow student just stared at me blankly, clearing not getting why I had been so excited at coming up with a unique solution to the problem. And that is when I knew that I was meant to be a programmer and he wasn't.
Your classmate was probably staring blankly because they didn't understand your answer, and thus was unable to copy it properly.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Tell him under no circumstances is he allowed to program. Should work with most teenagers.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO! "GOTO" is EEEEEEVILLLLLLLLLL!
while (1) {
print "FUCK";
}
Lesson The Second:
10 INPUT "What is your name? : ", U$
20 PRINT "Fuck you "; U$
30 GOTO 20
Whoa now, big fella. First, get him a slashdot account, have him read, post some good comments, maybe submit a story, then he can start modding.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.