IMHO any tutorial that starts out with “first install the compiler” is suboptimal for a procrastinator to get started with because Delay is part of the procrastination equation. Also reading is not the same thing as typing.
Once you’ve typed in a bunch of code in a language it increases your Expectancy, making it easier to dive into the steps of installing an IDE and following along from a book.
Note that if you intend to learn a bunch of languages, starting from a linux box means that “first install the compiler” is just “sudo apt-get install haskell-platform”, or for Python, a no-op
This is a good point. Being on Linux as a starting point eliminates a lot of trivial inconveniences to programming. For example, it’s simple to clone a git repo. Also you’re more likely to actually use the command line for everyday stuff, which automatically teaches some aspects of programming.
I’m a big fan of the interactive approach:
Try Haskell
Try Python
Try Ruby
IMHO any tutorial that starts out with “first install the compiler” is suboptimal for a procrastinator to get started with because Delay is part of the procrastination equation. Also reading is not the same thing as typing.
Once you’ve typed in a bunch of code in a language it increases your Expectancy, making it easier to dive into the steps of installing an IDE and following along from a book.
Note that if you intend to learn a bunch of languages, starting from a linux box means that “first install the compiler” is just “sudo apt-get install haskell-platform”, or for Python, a no-op
This is a good point. Being on Linux as a starting point eliminates a lot of trivial inconveniences to programming. For example, it’s simple to clone a git repo. Also you’re more likely to actually use the command line for everyday stuff, which automatically teaches some aspects of programming.