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I wonder if JS is perhaps a bit too high level and internally complex to be a great first programming language to be taught to people with no CS fundamentals. F
by akurilin 14y ago
I wonder if JS is perhaps a bit too high level and internally complex to be a great first programming language to be taught to people with no CS fundamentals. Fully internalizing front-end development is no trivial task, and teaching JS out-of-context just by itself might not be super helpful, even though it's probably better than jumping straight to Java, which is also quite magical internally.
On the other hand I can see someone making the same argument about a low level language like C. One could claim that without full understanding of assembly, compilers, the ISA, and hardware-level optimizations you don't really gain much insight into computing.
Reminds me of the never ending debate about whether they should teach Java or assembly as first language in a CS curriculum.
There's probably no right answer, you just got to start somewhere and you'll figure things out on the long term. The web is ever more relevant and JS won't go away for a long time.
- dantheman 14y agoI'd say the best 1st language would either be scheme or smalltalk.
- andrewvc 14y agoI have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I agree completely, on the other, being a 'first language' has really hindered scheme in the minds of programmers. Many (ridiculously) think of it as a ridiculous teaching language they were forced to learn.
- nonamegiven 14y agoThe best first language is one that your friends use, so you can get help from friends. If you're in a community of schemers or smalltalkers, great. Otherwise ...
- Mandatum 14y agoI think there's different types of developers. Those who are interested in the computing aspect, love maths, problem solving and learning the nitty-gritty of languages. And those who just want to make things. I'm not saying these are mutually exclusive! We've all got that hunger to create. But some of us prefer the theory, whilst others just want to bang shit together until it works.