2 ms·
When is "the day"? I was using Java and PHP as a 12 year old in the 00s. Honestly with the likes of WSL and (hated as they are), curl | sh installers or exes th
by Macha 5y ago
When is "the day"? I was using Java and PHP as a 12 year old in the 00s. Honestly with the likes of WSL and (hated as they are), curl | sh installers or exes that don't require pissing about with the environment variables window, it's arguably easier to get started with a real programming language now than the 00s.
- walnutclosefarm 5y agoWhen is the day, indeed? I learned programming using Kemeny and Kurtz BASIC in the late 1960s. I have long since lost count of the number of languages I've learned well enough to write production code in, but it's somewhere North of 2 dozen. All built on the basic mental equipment I developed with that primitive BASIC - a sense for the relationship and interaction of three basic elements: symbolic code expressing structure and control; algorithm; and data, in and out. This is what a children's language should aim for - making the onramp to that mental landscape as accessible and responsive as possible. You don't need lambda calculus for that, any more than you need group theory or complex analysis to bring the joy and power of arithmetic and math to young minds. The superstructure will follow, if you get the foundation right.
- darkwater 5y agoI was referring to understanding (more or less) the whole stack, down to the hardware. Getting started is probably easier today (because of the Internet) than how it was... back in the day, where you need to have some kind of physical contact and where you lived mattered a lot. But anyway, this wasn't my main point.