On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 11:59, Andrew Errington wrote: > I don't want to start a flame war, but I have a friend who wants to learn > programming. I am unsure exactly what to recommend, but I am thinking that > Python might be a good suggestion. I have taught Python, sh, awk, and C. I have been around people attempting to teach many other languages including Java, Haskell, and Lisp. In my considered opinion, Python is the easiest language to teach and learn. It allows you to introduce simple concepts (statements, variables, programs, control-flow\ldots) without having to deal with overhead of object-orientation, pointers, or odd syntax. It also allows you to introduce advanced concepts incrementally, so you can ease the poor soul into OO and functional programming :)
When you teach programming, you will be surprised at how much you know, and how little your student knows :) -- Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/
