the stuff about programming in 'binary': kids might not understand that the binary numbers are the instructions, of which an instruction manual would have been available to relate each 8 bit binary code to human language/ assembler.
When I was about 15 years old I bought a book on z80 machine language for the ZX spectrum. All the stuff at the begining about binary arithmetic left me bewildered as how simpleaddition and subtraction could possibly create a computer program (of course thats not the way it works, Turing had difficulty in conving people of this point though) (should have kept reading though as it was a very good book). I stopped reading it and got back to my beloved BASIC and longed to get into Pascal and C. If only id known that the binary numbers were the instructions (and how writing data to vdu ram would display stuff) I could have had so much fun. Some may think that I was a bit dim, but in my defence I was also entirely self taught. I'm really pleased that someone is teaching the kids how to code, this is very valuable work. --- On Tue, 1/9/09, Lyle <[email protected]> wrote: From: Lyle <[email protected]> Subject: [BristolBathPM] Perl course chapters 1 & 2, reviews please :) To: "Bristol and Bath Perl M[ou]ngers" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, 1 September, 2009, 11:38 PM Hi All, School term is almost upon us. That means I need to get my act together again on the free Perl course for schools. I'll be posting the chapters I used at the first school ready for you all to correct me :) All constructive feedback much appreciated. Remember this is aimed at secondary school kids so I didn't want to go into to much detail... I'm really not happy with the paragraph for chapter 2, but as most of you know by now, English has never been my strong point :-[ Chapter 1: Getting Started with Perl - Computer set up Windows: ActivePerl can be downloaded from http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/ ensure that you select the right edition for your operating system. The installation should automatically associate .pl files with the Perl interpreter. Linux:erl (or, indeed, anything) on Windows, but I understand that you should be recommending Strawberry Perl over Activ Perl is included in most distributions of Linux. If you do not have the Perl package installed for your distro there will be one available, you can also download ActivePerl from the link above. Setting up a web server Windows: If you do not have windows IIS you can download Apache from http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi If you download the msi version you'll have a nice wizard to take you through the install. Providing you follow the defaults Apache will be displayed locally at http://localhost . Linux: Apache is also already included with most distributions and is available at http://localhost also. You may need to install your distro's package for this. Chapter 2: Programming and Computers A basic computer consists of CPU, RAM and a HDD with input devices such as keyboard and mouse, output devices such as VDU and printers. The CPU processes requests based on the 86 instruction set. Early computers were programmed in binary a series of 0’s and 1’s.. 1 byte = 8 bits of binary i.e 01001010. This made programming a lengthy process so assembly language evolved and then on to C programming. C is the foundation for most programming languages we have today. Higher level languages such as Perl, Java and Python use richer syntax making it easier to code larger more detailed programs. A program that's hundreds of lines of C could be just tens of lines of Perl. Lyle _______________________________________________ BristolBathPM mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.bristolbath.org/mailman/listinfo/bristolbathpm
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