Reply-To: <arfa AT clara DOT net>
From: "Arthur" <arfa AT clara DOT net>
To: "DJGPP Mailing List" <djgpp AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: RE: Teaching a child to program in C
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 17:12:34 +0100
Message-ID: <000901bddc0c$a7dc68c0$894b08c3@arthur>
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> Excuse me sir, but I am 14, I started in Basic at the age of 9.  Probably
> the only reason I didn't start sooner was because my family didn't own a
> computer until then.  Frankly sir, from my experience, a bright 7 year
> old could easily learn C with some simple perseverence, and an
> intelligent child _will_ have it.  I know, I was there.  A 7 year old
> will get as frustrated with Basic or LOGO as with C because the
> principals are the same all over, just a different interface to the
> principal.  I encourage any kid who wants to learn to program, and I say
> they should be as aggressive in their learning as they want to be.  As
> for the gentleman with the original question:

Yep, I started at 9 in a similar situation. Actually, I learnt to do batch
files before that, during the odd occasion when my dad brought his (huge) HP
Vectra 286 home for a weekend. There's no reason why you can't program
young. Besides, I said in another posting that you do cover basic LOGO
programming at school (well, in my school anyway). This does, of course,
have varying degrees of success but IMO it's not a particularly stimulating
language to learn.

> Buy a ' x For Dummies' book like Qbasic Programming for Dummies, C for
> Dummies, et cetera, they are written in a form a baby could understand
> (and that's probably not far beyond the truth :-).

Hmm, that's who they appear to be written for, anyway.

> Mr. Breton, your LOGO suggestion is a good idea, but don't denounce the
> possibility of a 7 year old learning C, and also spell BRIGHT as such and
> not brite, as it is incorrect.

:^)

James Arthur
jaa AT arfa DOT clara DOT net
ICQ#15054819