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Install XAMPP from Apachefriends.org and have her start PHP. It's what many schools use for their beginner classes. On Windows, I like PHPDeveloper personal edi

by ax0n 17y ago

Install XAMPP from Apachefriends.org and have her start PHP. It's what many schools use for their beginner classes. On Windows, I like PHPDeveloper personal edition for an IDE. It's cheap (or free, I can't recall). PHP is mainstream, and since it's a web technology, she can likely show it off to her friends. It's not hard to find cheap PHP hosting if she ends up building something that she wants to put on the public-facing Internet for friends or strangers to use. XAMPP also comes with MySQL pre-configured, which is a bonus. I cut my teeth on Logo and BASIC as a youngster. I wouldn't wish BASIC on anyone, and she's old enough that Logo would be boring.

Tichy 17y ago
Come on, PHP is a horrible mess. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's the way it is. Don't start with PHP. I usually leave PHP devs to their own world, but since you suggest spoiling the children, I had to jump in... As for hosting, you could easily host a Ruby/Sinatra app on Heroku to show off for friends.
- alan_p 17y ago
  I started with PHP and I wouldn't recommend it. It teaches you horrible habits and its type system is equally confusing if you get started or if you come from another language. Plus, you have that heavily polluted global namespace, a half-assed class system (objects are special, classes are special, primitives are special -- in Python the experience is closer to "OMG I've been using objects all along!" (like in those movies where the protagonist suddenly realises the shoes weren't magical, "the magic was in [him]") whereas in PHP you actually need to understand a completely different approach to what you're used to. And don't get me started on naming conventions. Sure, you can adapt to PHP's inconsistencies, but ideally the first language you learn should be reliable and consistent. BESIDES: if you learn a web language, you have to learn HTML first. And if you want to learn HTML these days, you also have to learn CSS and then JavaScript isn't far off either. In short: you'll have to learn a whole lot of stuff just to get anywhere. If you start coding in a shell and eventually start on GUI code, you only have to worry about what it all looks like on YOUR machine (and if you want to share your code, you can simply (have your daddy) make sure the other person has all the necessary modules in place).
- ax0n 17y ago
  Okay, I'll give you this. You made some good points against PHP, but prior to my post, look at some of the suggestions that were completely off-the-wall, impractical and hardly ever used for anything in the wild. I won't enumerate them here. Perhaps ruby or python would be okay. And sure, if you wanna break out frameworks (the auto-tune of programming) be my guest.

by ax0n 17y ago

Tichy 17y ago

Come on, PHP is a horrible mess. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's the way it is. Don't start with PHP. I usually leave PHP devs to their own world, but since you suggest spoiling the children, I had to jump in... As for hosting, you could easily host a Ruby/Sinatra app on Heroku to show off for friends.

alan_p 17y ago
I started with PHP and I wouldn't recommend it. It teaches you horrible habits and its type system is equally confusing if you get started or if you come from another language. Plus, you have that heavily polluted global namespace, a half-assed class system (objects are special, classes are special, primitives are special -- in Python the experience is closer to "OMG I've been using objects all along!" (like in those movies where the protagonist suddenly realises the shoes weren't magical, "the magic was in [him]") whereas in PHP you actually need to understand a completely different approach to what you're used to. And don't get me started on naming conventions. Sure, you can adapt to PHP's inconsistencies, but ideally the first language you learn should be reliable and consistent. BESIDES: if you learn a web language, you have to learn HTML first. And if you want to learn HTML these days, you also have to learn CSS and then JavaScript isn't far off either. In short: you'll have to learn a whole lot of stuff just to get anywhere. If you start coding in a shell and eventually start on GUI code, you only have to worry about what it all looks like on YOUR machine (and if you want to share your code, you can simply (have your daddy) make sure the other person has all the necessary modules in place).
ax0n 17y ago
Okay, I'll give you this. You made some good points against PHP, but prior to my post, look at some of the suggestions that were completely off-the-wall, impractical and hardly ever used for anything in the wild. I won't enumerate them here. Perhaps ruby or python would be okay. And sure, if you wanna break out frameworks (the auto-tune of programming) be my guest.