First computer language
Karl Hegbloom
hegbloom at pdx.edu
Mon Aug 22 17:58:07 UTC 2005
In my opinion, the several textbooks that use Scheme as the teaching
language are the best way to start programming. Scheme has a very
simple syntax, and so you spend a lot less time fighting with the
language and syntax errors and a lot more time learning the theory
behind programming itself.
Please have a look at:
http://www.htdp.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SICP
The introduction to HTDP (How To Design Programs) contains a nicely
written and very convincing essay as to why Scheme was chosen over other
languages. Other excellent texts on Scheme include "Scheme and the Art
of Programming", and "Essentials of Programming Languages", from MIT
Press.
People may say that Scheme is "not practical" and that "nobody uses it
for real programs". That argument is shallow and given only by people
who don't really know much about Scheme. Perhaps Scheme is mainly a
pedagogical language --- designed for teaching programming. What you
learn from those textbooks and from Scheme programming is certainly, I
know from experience, applicable to programming in other computer
languages. For instance, I could not really "get" Perl until after I
had learned Scheme. I can do things in C that I would never have
thought of had I never learned Scheme. If you want to really grok
Gnome, Glib, and GTK+, study Scheme and SICP (Structure and
Interpretation of Computer Programs).
The lecture videos for SICP are really cool. Watch the video, then read
the material, then watch it again. It's like free college lecture.
--
Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom at pdx.edu>
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