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Ruby. I don't think you could get any less verbose, it's simple to understand and to the point, great for a first language. :)

by ashleyw 17y ago

jackowayed 17y ago
I love Ruby, and it made perfect sense when I started learning it at 13. The syntax is so natural. The only issue is what she wants to do with it. I was tilted a bit towards wanting to do "real" programming, so I had no problem with the fact that I've still never actually done anything with a GUI (well, the browser is basically a GUI for your Rails/Sinatra apps). There are ways to do GUI's with Ruby, and it doesn't look too hard, but it's not as simple as it would be in, say, VB, or probably even Java. But don't give her VB or you'll scare her away from coding forever. If she does want to do GUI's, you could checkout http://shoes.heroku.com/ http://shoes.heroku.com/ Never used it, but I hear it's pretty good.
sailormoon 17y ago
I would agree 100% with you except for some personal experiences I've had. I'm a full time Ruby developer who incessantly tries to pull all his friends, kicking and screaming, into programming - any programming - and naturally I push Ruby first, since I find it such an elegant, intuitive language. To my surprise, though, some people just don't "get it". Where I see elegant, intuitive behaviour, they see incomprehensible magic. Where I delight in "objects all the way down", they find OO to be at odds with their conceptualisation and an unnecessary, unwelcome complexifying factor. Depends on the person. I hate to say it but in many cases a less "opinionated about OO" language, like (gasp!) PHP, might be a better fit.
- jamesbritt 17y ago
  'Depends on the person. I hate to say it but in many cases a less "opinionated about OO" language, like (gasp!) PHP, might be a better fit.' PHP is equally opinionated about OO, as is Java, C++, Smalltalk, et al. It's just that not all opinions are equal.

Ruby. I don't think you could get any less verbose, it's simple to understand and to the point, great for a first language. :)

by ashleyw 17y ago

Ruby. I don't think you could get any less verbose, it's simple to understand and to the point, great for a first language. :)

jackowayed 17y ago

I love Ruby, and it made perfect sense when I started learning it at 13. The syntax is so natural. The only issue is what she wants to do with it. I was tilted a bit towards wanting to do "real" programming, so I had no problem with the fact that I've still never actually done anything with a GUI (well, the browser is basically a GUI for your Rails/Sinatra apps). There are ways to do GUI's with Ruby, and it doesn't look too hard, but it's not as simple as it would be in, say, VB, or probably even Java. But don't give her VB or you'll scare her away from coding forever. If she does want to do GUI's, you could checkout http://shoes.heroku.com/ http://shoes.heroku.com/ Never used it, but I hear it's pretty good.

sailormoon 17y ago

I would agree 100% with you except for some personal experiences I've had. I'm a full time Ruby developer who incessantly tries to pull all his friends, kicking and screaming, into programming - any programming - and naturally I push Ruby first, since I find it such an elegant, intuitive language. To my surprise, though, some people just don't "get it". Where I see elegant, intuitive behaviour, they see incomprehensible magic. Where I delight in "objects all the way down", they find OO to be at odds with their conceptualisation and an unnecessary, unwelcome complexifying factor. Depends on the person. I hate to say it but in many cases a less "opinionated about OO" language, like (gasp!) PHP, might be a better fit.

jamesbritt 17y ago
'Depends on the person. I hate to say it but in many cases a less "opinionated about OO" language, like (gasp!) PHP, might be a better fit.' PHP is equally opinionated about OO, as is Java, C++, Smalltalk, et al. It's just that not all opinions are equal.