Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
get hosting?
Programming for kids
- Thread starter alsoknownas
- Start date
get hosting?
Setting up a personal webserver for PHP is much easier (most distros, including OS X Leopard) have it already enabled and ready to go...
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Decent hosts will certainly have Ruby these days, now that Rails has become popular.
untethered
For industry & decency
Firstly, I'm not quite sure how a thread about programming has turned into one about web development.
Secondly, there are hundreds of hosting companies that support Ruby on Rails (what I assume you're referring to) including Dreamhost, Joyent, etc. I remember a time when it was hard to get hosting for PHP. Things change.
Thirdly, Rails comes bundled with Leopard and every Linux distro (and of course OSX) comes with Ruby. To start a local web server from within your Rails application directory, just type:
$ ruby script/server
There, that wasn't hard, was it?
alsoknownas
some bloke
alsoknownas
some bloke
I think the issue is whether the "kid" will be able to host his work somewhere... I would still push for PHP rather than Ruby. If web "developers" can learn it, anyone can...
I don't think he's going to be doing that anytime soon.
Not if its included by default. My point is that its easier to get going with PHP...
alsoknownas
some bloke
This is probably the most sublime article I've seen written about any language. http://whytheluckystiff.net/
fogbat
The Talibum
Heroku.com - user-friendly, currently free (can't actually tell whether that'll change, but if they start charging, I'd definitely consider staying with them), Rails hosting. Bloody fantastic
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
That was the best bit, we used to send it off around the school. Although it would invariably end up getting stuck somewhere (or going down the stairs) and we'd have to go and find it
Aside from a bit of BASIC, my first 'proper' programming language was Pascal at college. That served me quite well for going on to learn VB, C++, Java and PHP at uni.
alsoknownas
some bloke
Hmmmm... this *does* look interesting. I'd be utilising my old skills, and the sprog can jump straight in with 3D objects (which he'll love). I might do this and learn a bit of java on the side for my own amusement, and for future teaching.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Actually, you know, thinking about it more - what I was interested in, when I was younger, was getting results quickly, some sort of results that I could feel and have fun with and show my friends. (I'm still like that to be honest, but, well, I'm better now so can get results more quickly. But I find it hard to learn a new language unless I can produce "tangible" things with it in fairly short notice.)
There are advantages to learning a proper OO language to start with, but a tutorial for some command-line language saying "right, next, we'll sort a list of fruit names" wouldn't really have interested me that much unless it was clear that I could use it to make games with. More like piano lessons than anything else.
Actionscript could certainly be a way to go, or one of the very-high-level games dev systems - I'm thinking of something like RPG Maker XP, which has a scripting system built in.
There are advantages to learning a proper OO language to start with, but a tutorial for some command-line language saying "right, next, we'll sort a list of fruit names" wouldn't really have interested me that much unless it was clear that I could use it to make games with. More like piano lessons than anything else.
Actionscript could certainly be a way to go, or one of the very-high-level games dev systems - I'm thinking of something like RPG Maker XP, which has a scripting system built in.
alsoknownas
some bloke
Yeah, that's pretty much how learning BASIC was for me. Only in those days I was just excited and amazed that we had an actual computer in our home
. So spending two hours just to get an "X" to move across the screen seemed like an amazingly worthwhile payoff. Somehow I doubt my nipper is going to feel the same way about it.Or should I just give him a good old blast of 1980's programming power!:
http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic.html
BTW: Sorry, jæd, if I was a bit dismissive of your advice. I think i misunderstood your post.
fen_boy
Exits gracefully.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Yeah, that's pretty much how learning BASIC was for me. Only in those days I was just excited and amazed that we had an actual computer in our home
Or should I just give him a good old blast of 1980's programming power!:
http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic.html
BTW: Sorry, jæd, if I was a bit dismissive of your advice. I think i misunderstood your post.
Yeah, games were a lot shitter then, written by people who were only just a few steps ahead of the enthusiastic amateur. Nowadays, competing with EA, well, yeah, you're just going to feel silly, particularly if you're a kid.
Flash may well be the way to go, I'm thinking more and more, because you get something immediate - pretty pictures, interactive things, beeps and bangs, and you can actually do some quite sophisticated stuff when you're ready. All of the proper games dev languages that I know of are actually quite hardcore, they're designed to produce proper games after all. The RPG Maker sort of thing is all very well but is rather specialised.
Yeah, that was it. Bloody impressive the way he teaches a language via a rambling "surreal" cartoon character.
gnoriac
lowly seer
Quite hooked on that, I've never particularly been interested in Ruby before but this is such easy reading. Skipping all the cartoons and ramblings, he/she introduces the peculiarities of the language in a really accessible and intriguing manner.
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