Learning With D
Hello, I am making this announcement since there is an article contest and this might fit into that. I started writing what I hoped would turn into a fairly complete book. I am releasing the current content under the creative commons license. If this is reasonable for submission in the contest the great, but I just thought it would be good to get what I have out there while a number of other articles are going to be getting some attention. Now on to the details. This book is intended to teach programming from the ground up. As such it isn't about comparing languages or discussing specific features. We all know D would make a very good first language, and I want to provide some material that makes this possible. And I really want the user to go from first time Python programmer to basic C programmer. While I am no where near complete and I really have never worked out an outline, I am providing both a PDF and a tex file for those that actually know what they are doing. One approach that I think many will like is the Common Errors sections which is meant to help people identify what the compiler is saying when things go wrong. http://nascent.freeshell.org/programming/D/LearningWithD.pdf http://nascent.freeshell.org/programming/D/LearningWithD.tex
Re: Learning With D
Jesse Phillips: We all know D would make a very good first language, and I want to provide some material that makes this possible. This is a very interesting experiment, thank you for writing it. Regarding languages to be used as first language for adults or near-adults, I think there is no very good language for this purpose (for children the situation is better, there are many Logo variants, some graphical languages, etc). And even if you invent a language very good for this purpose, probably no one uses it, there are no libs and ecosystem for it, so it keeps being a mostly useless and buggy toy. I don't see many ways out of this situation. Bye, bearophile
Re: Learning With D
On 05/21/2011 11:12 PM, Jesse Phillips wrote: I started writing what I hoped would turn into a fairly complete book. Thank you for doing this! :) This book is intended to teach programming from the ground up. I have some experience in doing the same. Just like teaching in the classroom, no matter what style or detail has been chosen, readers will find the material anywhere from very easy to exteremly difficult. :) One (draft of an) article on teaching programming that had struck a chord with me has been http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf They divide the students in three groups. They argue that the ones that are successful in programming are the ones who can form consistent models for unknown phenomena. (Not their exact words, but what I got out of the paper.) We all know D would make a very good first language Agreed. Although there are so many high level concepts in the language, starting to write simple programs is very easy. For example, one can go a long way without even knowing that pointers exist. Additionally, having to introduce the concept of a reference type earlier makes it easy to explain pointers later on. And I really want the user to go from first time Python programmer to basic C programmer. I think, that is a more accurate description than the one in Chapter 1: (expected starting experience of none). I can imagine that some people will find your book a little too fast. (And others will find it too slow! :)) One approach that I think many will like is the Common Errors sections which is meant to help people identify what the compiler is saying when things go wrong. That is going to be very helpful. Thank you, Ali
Re: Learning With D
Am 23.05.2011 01:29, schrieb Ali Çehreli: On 05/21/2011 11:12 PM, Jesse Phillips wrote: I started writing what I hoped would turn into a fairly complete book. Thank you for doing this! :) This book is intended to teach programming from the ground up. I have some experience in doing the same. Just like teaching in the classroom, no matter what style or detail has been chosen, readers will find the material anywhere from very easy to exteremly difficult. :) One (draft of an) article on teaching programming that had struck a chord with me has been http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf They divide the students in three groups. They argue that the ones that are successful in programming are the ones who can form consistent models for unknown phenomena. (Not their exact words, but what I got out of the paper.) We all know D would make a very good first language Agreed. Although there are so many high level concepts in the language, starting to write simple programs is very easy. For example, one can go a long way without even knowing that pointers exist. Additionally, having to introduce the concept of a reference type earlier makes it easy to explain pointers later on. I think explaining pointers first (including you have to dereference it to get to the thing it's pointing at, to show the difference between pointer and pointee) may be a better idea. After that you can say and objects of classes are reference types, they behave like pointers but don't need all the ugly syntax And I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49_SNt4yfk is a great video explaining pointers ;) And I really want the user to go from first time Python programmer to basic C programmer. I think, that is a more accurate description than the one in Chapter 1: (expected starting experience of none). I can imagine that some people will find your book a little too fast. (And others will find it too slow! :)) One approach that I think many will like is the Common Errors sections which is meant to help people identify what the compiler is saying when things go wrong. That is going to be very helpful. Thank you, Ali
Re: Learning With D
On 22 May 2011 22:26, bearophile bearophileh...@lycos.com wrote: Jesse Phillips: We all know D would make a very good first language, and I want to provide some material that makes this possible. This is a very interesting experiment, thank you for writing it. Regarding languages to be used as first language for adults or near-adults, I think there is no very good language for this purpose (for children the situation is better, there are many Logo variants, some graphical languages, etc). And even if you invent a language very good for this purpose, probably no one uses it, there are no libs and ecosystem for it, so it keeps being a mostly useless and buggy toy. I don't see many ways out of this situation. Bye, bearophile Well about learning a programming language as your first; I really think its worth considering that several universities (AU atleast) introduces their students to programming, using java, simply because it offers several pedagogical learning tools alike; Greenfoot, that makes the introduction more of a game than really an exercise. I honestly think, it would make D more attractive as a first language to learn, if it had these 'pedagogical' teaching tools. -- // Yours sincerely // Emil 'Skeen' Madsen
Re: Learning With D
On 05/22/2011 04:36 PM, Daniel Gibson wrote: And I think http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49_SNt4yfk is a great video explaining pointers ;) Yes, funny. :) But as some of the comments show, there are bad practices like not initializing the pointers. I wonder whether the person who wrote the accompanying code has experience with pointers. ;) Also, the fact that the pointee is allocated with 'new' is adding confusion to the already confusing matter. Allocating by new is a lifetime issue and has nothing to do with being a pointee. It also makes one wonder whether the int should not be guarded by a smart pointer. Ali
