15 Responses

1. Riaan Hanekom

   22|May|2007 1

   As a side note, the book you’re referring to was written by Martin Dreyer, a guy right here in South Africa. What’s great about this is that he’s a teacher turned programmer - so he can write, program, and teach effectively.

   I’ll be giving this book to my son one day - his first word would probably be C#

2. Tomasz Klekot

   22|May|2007 2

   Thanks for note!
   I wish Your son much luck
   Programming is in my opinion much better for creative people than for example painting - easier work, easier to fix, not bad money.

3. SEO Reloaded

   08|Jun|2007 3

   The image with public, private and protected elements has been explained the best. Amazing imagination here

4. JImbo

   09|Jun|2007 4

   I don’t think I’ve ever seen private/protected/public so poorly explained with a picture. So wait, private means everyone can see it, right? Because you can see the kid throuigh the window. And protected means it can do stuff, because he’s got a ball, but the public guy, he can’t do stuff but he can wave. And he can walk in and become protected. Yeah, it’s all so much clearer thanmks to the picture.

5. Kin

   09|Jun|2007 5

   I believe this is wonderful! It’s not expecting comprehension, let’s live for a little familiarity. I said I like this as it’s great, despite not really following your ridicule.

6. tikka

   09|Jun|2007 6

   I was writing BASIC on the spectrum when I was around 5, give or take a few years..

   The book I was coding from was not designed as a teaching aid, simply a way of providing 40 games on paper. Now if I was that age again and had easy to understand documentation, I would have far exceeded my ability now.
   When I was around 10 or so I would write code on paper because I didn’t have a computer at home but understood the BASIC language from using the BBC and Nimbus machines at school etc..

   That eBook is far from written very well and it requires a rewrite by a woman who works with young children, then the language is further simplified.

   That said, I dislike C# and it shouldn’t be taught to kids.
   Teach them fundamentals of the assembly language and chuck them into C with fun libs for easy fantasy game dev.

   Infact while I think of it, I was around 6 and I would read my brothers physics school books. A lot of it went over my head because of how it was explained, when I was 8 they made me do an IQ test and I scored up there with the 16 year olds and so I feel children can be nurtured but I worry about what level of language they can process?

7. Freelance Website Design

   09|Jun|2007 7

   This is quite comical. It’s entirely possible though, I was programming basic on an old TRS 80 when I was 7. I found it incredibly easy. Kids minds are like sponges.

8. Tomasz Klekot

   09|Jun|2007 8

   Oh, trust me.. I was a kid not so long ago… and I was the only one in my (pretty huge) city who could create applications…
   There aren’t many such children.

9. steven

   10|Jun|2007 9

   hi i am a kid and i would love that book i cant wait to learn programing

10. Tomasz Klekot

    10|Jun|2007 10

    Good luck!

11. peepr

    10|Jun|2007 11

    haha, that’s just great stuff

12. Vidar Hokstad

    10|Jun|2007 12

    I’ll refrain from commenting about the book, but your comment about the intended age seems to me to be nothing but insulting to kids. Kids aren’t stupid.

    Like another poster, I was 5 when I started programming - first BASIC on the VIC 20 and then on C64, before I graduated to assembler on the C64 around 10 (mostly because I didn’t have access to any documentation explaining it before then) and then assembler on the Amiga when I was 12 or so.

    I find it part amusing, part sad, that people still find it strange to imagine kids that age learning to program. I didn’t need an “e-book”. I’m Norwegian and didn’t speak or read a word of English, yet I learned most of my programming from the English manuals that came with our VIC 20 and C64. In fact, I can thank my desire to learn to program for the ease with which I started picking up English long before we started learning it at school.

    And I’m by far unique - MANY of my friends in primary school were programming at that age, though not many took it as far as me. In Europe, where the Commodore 64 was most popular, there was a hugely vibrant demo-scene throughout the 80’s (in fact, the scene still exists, though it’s now mostly 30-somethings doing stuff on the C64 out of nostalgia) where few members were past their teens in the early years and many were in their early teens or younger - you’d regularly have kids in their teens do things that Commodore thought was impossible to do on their hardware after having spent years honing their skills. It was much the same for other home computers. On the PC things are different, because the hardware is such a moving target, but there’s still a demo scene.

    We regularly see kids excel in other skills, and yet computers are somehow seen as “too complicated”. Take a look at your kids (or if you don’t have kids, take a look at your friends kids) and notice that unless you’re a real geek they likely surpassed you in technology skills before they turn 10.

    Give them access to the right tools, and an incentive (show them how they can achieve something THEY think is cool), and they’ll be programming in no-time.

13. Tomasz Klekot

    11|Jun|2007 13

    I go to school every day and I have to deal with many children… Maybe kids were so intelligent in the 80s, but now, many kids are so stupid that it’s hard to describe…
    Or, maybe that’s because a place I live… Maybe in other countries it’s better…

    As a proof - in my class, 5 people out of 30 will not go to the next class! That’s over 16%.

    In Poland, kids have an exam when they’re 13. In this year’s exam, there was a question:

    A class have 5 lessons on Mondays, 45 minutes each. All breaks are 10 minutes except one that’s 15 minuts. How long will the class stay at school.

    Only about 25% of kids answered this question right!

14. Slawek

    04|Jul|2007 14

    Hello,
    Start is the most important thing in learning prog. language. Nowadays every kids have many games, and math is not on the first page - and this is wrong. No way to learn programming when someone don’t know math very well. It is not about few commands or calculate, but about alghoritms and logical thinking in every case.
    Best regards

15. Muhabbette.ORG

    24|May|2008 15

    thanks