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Python. Easy to learn, easy to use, easy to maintain. I'm also trying Pygame and Pyglet and for a hobbyist game programmer it's very enjoyable not having to de

Python. Easy to learn, easy to use, easy to maintain. I'm also trying Pygame and Pyglet and for a hobbyist game programmer it's very enjoyable not having to deal with C/C++ memory management crap. PS: I think most programmer still have a fondness for their first coding environment because when your young everything is awesome, especially computers :) I have good memories of writing an adventure game using QBasic.

SwellJoe 17y ago
Python has iPython going for it, which is drop dead awesome to tinker with. I'm back to Perl, but the time I spent with Python was definitely made even more fun by iPython.
- pragmatic 17y ago
  IPython is fantastic. I'm working through project Euler with Python, IPython and notepad++. I work with C#, asp.net during my day job. While C# is a great language and the .net framework is the most sane API I've ever used, I was able to do some of the Euler problems in one, easy to understand line.
danteembermage 17y ago
Imagine I'm in fifth grade and I hit open apple + control + reset. Instead of a blinking prompt, an editor opens where I see a bunch of curly braces and "Public static void main (String args[])" Yeah, not as fun.
ced 17y ago
I've been teaching a couple of teenagers programming using Python and Pygame, and surprisingly, I found myself yearning for QBasic. Because... - Already installed on the Windows 3.1 machines. - Whitespace isn't significant. It's obvious to me how a program should be indented, but it's not to a beginner. Missing ENDFOR is much clearer than Incorrect Indentation. - No modules. Anything I have to explain as "it's magic" is a potential source of problem. - LINE (30,40)-(100,50), BF to draw a rectangle. The Pygame equivalent is somewhat longer, mostly due to having to setup a window. - The IDE was better. The help facility, in particular, was positively wonderful compared to what you get with help(...) Once these hurdles are overcome, Python does provide better capabilities, but it's not quite the perfect beginner language that I expected it to be.

SwellJoe 17y ago

Python has iPython going for it, which is drop dead awesome to tinker with. I'm back to Perl, but the time I spent with Python was definitely made even more fun by iPython.

pragmatic 17y ago
IPython is fantastic. I'm working through project Euler with Python, IPython and notepad++. I work with C#, asp.net during my day job. While C# is a great language and the .net framework is the most sane API I've ever used, I was able to do some of the Euler problems in one, easy to understand line.

danteembermage 17y ago

Imagine I'm in fifth grade and I hit open apple + control + reset. Instead of a blinking prompt, an editor opens where I see a bunch of curly braces and "Public static void main (String args[])" Yeah, not as fun.

ced 17y ago

I've been teaching a couple of teenagers programming using Python and Pygame, and surprisingly, I found myself yearning for QBasic. Because... - Already installed on the Windows 3.1 machines. - Whitespace isn't significant. It's obvious to me how a program should be indented, but it's not to a beginner. Missing ENDFOR is much clearer than Incorrect Indentation. - No modules. Anything I have to explain as "it's magic" is a potential source of problem. - LINE (30,40)-(100,50), BF to draw a rectangle. The Pygame equivalent is somewhat longer, mostly due to having to setup a window. - The IDE was better. The help facility, in particular, was positively wonderful compared to what you get with help(...) Once these hurdles are overcome, Python does provide better capabilities, but it's not quite the perfect beginner language that I expected it to be.