Re:Ask HN: Is teaching my 8yr old son a functional language ...
by davelnewton on Thursday April 27, 2017 @01:13PM
(#14213113)
No reason not to start with FP. Arguably even better.
I wouldn't use a brace-language first, though. I'd stick with Logo, Smalltalk, Python, or Scheme, preferably in a decent environment, e.g., Logo or Scratch.
The issue with starting with brace-oriented languages is that they spoil you in different ways. Ceremonial languages are a harder sell, less fun, and AFAIK don't have good kid-oriented "IDE"s.
(Processing might be an exception since it has reasonably-friendly IDEs and provides immediate feedback.)
Worrying about "spoiling" this early because of Ruby seems odd to me. It's a low-ceremonial way to get started, it has enough power to do anything necessary including teaching "higher-order" programming. But without Shoes it lacks the immediate feedback loop for kid-like programming (shapes, graphics, games, etc.)
I wouldn't use a brace-language first, though. I'd stick with Logo, Smalltalk, Python, or Scheme, preferably in a decent environment, e.g., Logo or Scratch.
The issue with starting with brace-oriented languages is that they spoil you in different ways. Ceremonial languages are a harder sell, less fun, and AFAIK don't have good kid-oriented "IDE"s.
(Processing might be an exception since it has reasonably-friendly IDEs and provides immediate feedback.)
Worrying about "spoiling" this early because of Ruby seems odd to me. It's a low-ceremonial way to get started, it has enough power to do anything necessary including teaching "higher-order" programming. But without Shoes it lacks the immediate feedback loop for kid-like programming (shapes, graphics, games, etc.)