"When teaching someone a programming language, your first goal should always be to get them to the point where they've made something real in a domain they unde

"When teaching someone a programming language, your first goal should always be to get them to the point where they've made something real in a domain they understand" There are steps before that! The user's first concern is how to run the damn thing. If they can't get past this stage, they will give up and never return. The user should be able to download, install, and copy/paste/run "Hello, World!" with no bullshit. No IDEs, no configurations, no REPL. You have time later to sell all of that. A programmer who can't run from a file is tethered to your tutorial, even if they want to write more permanent code. Give them that freedom immediately, and give them a win immediately. After they can actually run a program, then give an interesting example or two, and provide live links to up-to-date tutorials. It's irritating to see "official" links that are three versions out-of-date, and I see it too often. Examples should include a little bit of magic from the language, so the curious programmer thinks "Hm, that's not familiar. I wonder how that works!"