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Stephen Wolfram's Free Book Teaches the Wolfram Language To Kids
theodp writes: Stephen Wolfram received a PhD in particle physics at age 20 (his thesis committee included Richard Feynman). So it's probably not too surprising that Wolfram's new book, An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language (free on the web), aspires to teach those new to programming how to do much more than just move Minecraft and Star Wars characters around. "The goal of the book," explains Wolfram in a blog post, "is to take people from zero to the point where they know enough about the Wolfram Language that they can routinely use it to create programs for things they want to do. And when I say 'zero', I really mean 'zero'. This is a book for everyone. It doesn't assume any knowledge of programming, or math (beyond basic arithmetic), or anything else. It just starts from scratch and explains things. I've tried to make it appropriate for both adults and kids. I think it'll work for typical kids aged about 12 and up."
>This is a book for everyone. It doesn't assume any knowledge of programming, or math (beyond basic arithmetic), or anything else. It just starts from scratch and
>explains things.
I thought MIT Scratch was programming. I must be really confused.
The Wolfram Language represents a major advance in programming
languages that makes leading-edge computation accessible to everyone.
Unique in its approach of building in vast knowledge and automation,
the Wolfram Language scales from a single line of easy-to-understand
interactive code to million-line production systems.
This guy has serious talent in math, science and computers, but his self-promotion skills rival P.T. Barnum.
I was trying to figure out where I can use the language. I found something that looked like a portal for about $5 a month. is that the intended way to use this. Is the a free junior version of this somewhere? $5 isn't bad at all if you use it frequently but I'd rather learn it and see if I actually use it for free.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
... it helps if you make it fun. Ok, some people will learn anyway because they're really into it, but others - especially kids - won't unless its fun. Which is why Logo did well back in the 80s with moving a virtual or real turtle around.
Looking at his book it seems to me "fun" wasn't exactly in his top 10 ToDo list when writing it. For most people it will be about as much fun as having a tooth pulled. Lists and barcharts in chapter 4? Seriously? Fine in the MS Excel manual, not so great in a beginners book targeted at people who wouldn't normally think about learning programming.
but Wolfram looks a lot like Scott Adsit.
Considering all university classes use MATLAB. Nice try to get kids indoctrinated to your shitty product though, bro.
I'm imagining this guy's inner monologue. It goes something like this.
WAAAAH WAAAAH I'm smart pay attention to me WAAAAAH WAAAAAH I studied physics but for some reason you should listen to me about computer programming WAAAAH WAAAAAH why did daddy never love me WAAAAAH WAAAAAAH is it because my dick is so tiny WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Something like that.
Anything with a title that begins "An Elementary Introduction ..." isn't likely to inspire staying up late with your friends.
My kids went right after that Scratch / Minecraft skin and Hour of Code stuff because it was Minecraft-related, and also because the examples provided actually DID something ... and did it quickly, and it was Kind of Fun. It also Just Works in the browser. No significant barrier to entry, you don't even need Minecraft ... since it's just a Scratch skin running in the browser ... any browser.
My kids are also keenly interesting in making videos of their Minecraft adventures, and also want to get into mods so they can make purple cows or whatever. They want to know the absolute bare minimum required to get from A to B, and will at first follow any instructions by rote and pray they work, and if they don't, they get frustrated and then look around more. Reminds me a lot of when I started fooling around with computers, although I didn't have this big fancy Internet thing to find answers on, I had to get answers other ways.
Looking at the blog post ... arithmetic operations, pie charts, creating lists and operating on the lists, and ... DAD, CAN I PLAY MINECRAFT NOW? THIS IS BOOOORING.
Do they have the flag of Switzerland in Swift? No.
Wolfram: 1
Swift: 0
lucm, indeed.
Attn: Wolfram Usability Testing
1. I took me 10 minutes to figure out a "Wolfram Notebook", needed for these exercises, is not a product by itself, with an easy-to-find link, but part of lab.wolfram.com.
2. The first hello world program, solve 2+2: fails with "syntax error". It turns out you don't need the colon. I assume the colon is part of the section header of the text, but it is not obvious to leave it out.
3. 2+2= similarly gives bad results. Fair enough, but it is more logical than a colon, or nothing.
Well, that is my first 15 minutes with it.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
And when I say 'zero', I really mean 'zero'.
What, like the moment of conception?
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Stephen Wolfram - A new kind of science - the kind you have to pay for.
The language isn't free.
From what I can tell you must pay $10/mo to $15/mo in order to "save your notebook".
How nice of him to give out free books that teach about his non-free language.
I suspect very few 12 year olds are going look at this. Wolfram may be genius but a usability expert he is not. The Wolfram Language, his name, looks like something a mathematician would come up... "Let's see I've used all the math symbols already so let's start using all the punctuation symbols to do other actions! And I can combine punctuation symbols for more actions so I don't have to type too much!"
Where space is expensive, terseness is needed. Everywhere else it's the terseness that is expensive. Steep learning curve, expensive debugging (both logical and functional), and expensive mental context switches for people who want to be multi-lingual.
On the other hand if it becomes a high demand language then those who master it will definitely have job security.
Then use the fucking capital letters or tell those idiots to find a less confusing acronym.
Or just accept, with a modicum of grace, that you were ignorant of something and needed to learn, and be grateful you now know, rather than shouting at (metaphorically speaking) the messenger and lambasting those who Did(tm) and created a free too for people to use.
It's a nice looking book, but I'd like to convert all the code samples to octave, especially the ML.
Wolfram: Plus[3,7]
octave: sum([3,7])
I'll always hate Uppercase functions. Unless that's supposed to be some kind of class constructor.
No thanks dear Mr. Wolfram. I'm happy with Python and Sage.
As I read through the book, it is clear that Wolfram language is a keyword based derivative of the APL language created by Kenneth Iverson. What is old will be new again. Wolfram has super nice graphing and otherdata features but is fundamentally a functional array language that implements most of APL's arrray functions and operators. I like Wolfram langauge because I am a huge proponent of the APL language having written a commercial APL compiler with integrated distributed computing platform called NCL for Native Cloud Systems.
I don't think the book is for kids, but is a nice reference folks looking to hack together a quick app or prototype.
Wolfram gets a thumbs up from me.