Thursday, April 22, 2010

Programming for kids

I'm always on the lookout for books to get my kids interested in programming - you know - easy introductions.  I recently found one while following a link off of PerlBuzz called Falling out of love with a language.  In this, the author talks about getting bored with Perl and then discovering Ruby which was described as "Perl done right".  I was intrigued so I googled and found a list of the best Ruby books.  I then ordered this one used from Amazon:

Learn to Program, Second Edition (The Facets of Ruby Series)

I was really impressed with Ruby.  I ran through the 20 minute tutorial and then started reading this book.  The book is great!  The author teaches children so he knows how to hold your attention.  It's fun!  I honestly have never in my life seen a  better introduction to programming for kids or beginners.  So, hopefully, the kids will enjoy learning Ruby this summer.  I'm pretty sure my son will like the idea of programming an old style, text based adventure game.  When they're done with that, I'll show them Perl.

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, I know. Still, it was mentioned on Perl Buzz and, it IS a really nicely done book in ANY language. I'm not saying I'm switching or in the same frame of mind as Piers Cawley. But it did look like the best intro for young kids I've ever seen. No, I'll be using Perl for a LONG time.

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  2. Hang on! The language I was falling out of love with in that post was Ruby, not Perl. Read to the end, dammit!

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  3. Ha! I got distracted by the first part and went off to take the Ruby tutorial. Sorry! ;-)

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  4. Thanks you for shared with us such a valuable information regards to Perl and ruby languages.
    Amazing post!!!
    Programming for kids Singapore

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