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What language should my 11 yr. old brother start learning?

A

avi85

Senior member
My 11 yr. old brother wants to start learning a programming language and I want to make sure that it's something which won't be too complicated for a first language but hopefully something with a future. So what should it be?
 
Originally posted by: Ned Flanders
How about you save him from being a complete nerd and tell him to go out and play while he still can? [/Seriously!]
Click to expand...

He still does, but he also wants to learn programming...
 
I would suggest something like HTML, JavaScript, or other web programming language, as there is no cost for a compiler, and the results are immediately useful.
 
Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I would suggest something like HTML, JavaScript, or other web programming language, as there is no cost for a compiler, and the results are immediately useful.
Click to expand...

What non-web language would you suggest?
And assuming cost is not an issue, would you still say that a web language is the place to start?
 
Originally posted by: avi85
Originally posted by: Ned Flanders
How about you save him from being a complete nerd and tell him to go out and play while he still can? [/Seriously!]
Click to expand...

He still does, but he also wants to learn programming...
Click to expand...

Yeah - Wait until the nerd kicks in. He won't be off his computer. Save him while you can.
 
VB, C#, Java. Pick one of those. While HTML and other web code is useful, it is much like COBOL. Most of it is formatting display and not much real code learning looping, parsing, and crunching.

VB and Visual C# handle some of the Windows formatting (Visual tools) so that you can concentrate on getting the code down. Java has many tools and can be run on Linux with free tools for dev. Low cost entry.
 
I started with the old console BASIC when I was his age, by the time I was a lil older, I had wrote two text / asciiart adventure games. Ahh memories.


I agree about HTML, a young child will like that would get a kick out of creating his own web pages from scratch for his friends to visit.

Originally posted by: Ned Flanders
Originally posted by: avi85
Originally posted by: Ned Flanders
How about you save him from being a complete nerd and tell him to go out and play while he still can? [/Seriously!]
Click to expand...

He still does, but he also wants to learn programming...
Click to expand...

Yeah - Wait until the nerd kicks in. He won't be off his computer. Save him while you can.
Click to expand...

Rather him turn out to be a liberal arts (or some other nonscience) major that walks around without shoes and never leaves star bucks? Nothing wrong with starting them down the science path young. My father was an old school COBOL programmer and did a fine job raising me, but come to think of it he is kinda nerdy as am I.
 
I'd recommend java. It has enough structure to perhaps teach him a bit (unlike basic). It is interpreted so it is easier to work with than a compiled langauge and it has decent graphics library which can make it 'fun' - though it is too slow for some applications ...
 
html isn't a programming language and it won't provide any real introduction to logic

however, since he's 11, it might be a good start
team the html up with php for added bonus
 
english




j/k

i found VB pretty easy though obviously it'll be difficult to master like most stuff. i have only had a few months doing light work in matlab, then on my placement i decided to have alittle play with VB, it doesnt seem that hard at all, im in no way shape or form a computer geek type guy, i really have no clue how to write good efficient code. engineering is my main focus... ill be able to show you how to play with bernoullie's equation and things, but programing is not my forte!

anyway, good move i think, getting him into it early. i do engineering like i've said and we've been taught matlab (think its based on C?) and on my placement i was required to alter a few things in a few VB programs, and with computers seemingly all around us...there probably can never be too many people who can write good code.
 
I started on QBasic, but I don't think there are any easily accessible basic interpreters around anymore. I second the vote for starting on HTML then moving to something like C....

Oooh, how about python? I think the interpreter for that is free...
 
I don't know if I would start him with Python. There was a great article by David Brin on this topic in Salon.com recently. Back when I started there was an easily accesible version of BASIC on every PC. Visual Basic.NET is nowhere near as approachable for a kid to learn the absolute basics of programming. There actually are still some decent general purpose BASICs out there, but unfortunately most of them now produce compiled output. This article on my site has a link to Brin's article, as well as links to several popular BASICs.
 
Originally posted by: clamum
HTML with PHP.
Click to expand...

The problem with that is that he'll either:

a) Have to pay for hosting
or
b) his brother will have to learn to set up a local server.
 
Couldn't go wrong with the garbage language Turing. What I first learned on, pretty simple. It's designed as a basic, teaching language so it uses more commands (words) than symbols. Good for picking up how the logic and structure works. When I started using C, it was ok, but the millions of symbols for basic commands are confusing. Took me a lot of swearing during debugging to remember 'not' is != as opposed to /=...
 
Perl (use strict - easy to get lazy in perl)
java - my next target, with some UI programming

HTML is nice but not a real exercise in logical programming by itself, and will involve hosting a site eventually so more money required.

you may really just want to get a programming text book and have him really hammer out the labs/examples. without a project goal or some kind of purpose it may get old fast.

not everyone enjoyed being in the lab for several hrs a day... they changed majors

also while these debugging/programming suites (dpe's) they sell are nice, nothing really beats a *nix box for testing and coding. Dont get him hooked on a specific dpe.
 
Screw programming languages... have him start learning spanish. This is the perfect age for kids to learn a foreign language, as the language part of their brain is the most active at this time since they're developing literacy at a much higher rate than other age brackets.
 
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