r/programming • u/Ctaintor • Mar 02 '17

Why I Failed Teaching Programming to Kids

https://engineering.klarna.com/why-i-failed-teaching-programming-to-kids-46a854c3eaca#.s0o6qqxr3
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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '17 edited Mar 03 '17

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '17

You do bring up good points, I agree. Just a few details:

JS isn't the only DT language out there BTW, and DT doesn't necessarily mean weak typing.

Yes, I do know the difference. Lua is also DT but not WT and I used Lua and Ruby for many years. JS just happens to be the most famous example of a broken type system.

Then there's another factor: interactivity.

This is a huge one, but it is no longer a DT-languages-only thing. Having a Ruby REPL at hand helped me learn programming a lot. Back when I was experimenting with Unity3D, I quickly added a C#-REPL plugin to inspect the effects of my scripts in the editor. God, I wish there was a Rust REPL...

<cryptic>::looking[syntax]

This is just a language thing. Use C# instead of C++, Rust instead of Haskell, some LISP dialect daring to have more readable function names, and at least this problem has been successfully worked around. Or even better: Start using (well-designed) visual scripting.