Nope! But it would be great if the general population had some proficiency in programming, even if they don't choose a career in computing.

My partner is an aspiring film maker, but knows how to parse a CSV in python and do pattern matching, he was looking for funding and needed to pull all of the "x.com" domains out of a giant spreadsheet .. for him, simple, export as CSV and string match the email field.

This simple skill alone, put him miles ahead of the other film makers in his class, the others were using "find" in excel and copy pasting, he was done in 15 minutes, the others took hours.

There's so many examples where account managers, secretaries, business analysts, chemical engineers etc benefit from simple data matching. They're not going to write the next facebook, and are not interested in a "programming" / "computing" career, but data extraction and simple programming is becoming a basic skill like reading and writing, and it's all good I say!

Just in case this is a recurring task - he could be done in 10 seconds using Excel's autofilter functionality. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-custom-filt...

I don't doubt the usefulness of programming to the non-technologist, but Excel proficiency can be even more useful. It's so much more than just a container for CSVs!

Do you have links to any good tutorials about programming (in any language) for this purpose?

Though I haven't read it (I'm a programmer myself), I've always liked the idea of this book: https://leanpub.com/scrapingforjournalists

No, and no.

A fair percentage of people who start developing software early end up being passed by people who started later. A seemingly large factor of this is kids learning bad habits on their own and not being able to correct them later, or having a much more difficult time correcting them. (I'm not saying that is the case here, just generally.)

I hear this a lot, but I've never seen actual evidence of it. Everyone who started early that I've seen in computer science classes has been better than people who started later.

I concur. And it's not just mere ability that's at issue, here. Kids who enter computing at a young age are typically motivated more by genuine interest/passion than the later entrants who are more likely just picking a career.

Caveat: we're both dealing purely anecdotal evidence and a fair bit of conjecture. We could easily be wrong.

I started myself when I was in grade 6. I've always been ahead of others that started later as well when I've been in the same class.

But I've also spent a lot of time correcting bad habits, reading on good habits, and relearning a lot of things I did as a child -- and most of the code I wrote as a child was pretty awful.

Still, it's something that I've heard often and I can understand the logic behind it.

You're missing the point. This is about reducing the barrier to entry to programming; not just by abolishing the standard stereotypes that only boys do it but by providing affordable computing for children in a way that they could feasible save their pocket money to buy a machine and get going.

I saved for my first machine when I was 14 by keeping my lunch money and only eating a bag of crisps a day for over a year; this kid doesn't have to do that..

Well, since the Commodore 64 wasn't released until I was 18 yrs old, my answer is no.

> Doesn't everyone interested in computers/computing start programming things that are actually useful at roughly that age?

Sure, lots of people do, but it's nice to listen to her talk about it all the same.

There was one part: "Although it sometimes may be hard, or your programs sometimes won't work, once you do get it to work you feel really happy."

I thought that part was nice.

I wrote my first Hello World when I was 23 years old. I didn't write anything that could be described as "useful" (i.e. not a trivial practice exercise or a homework assignment) until I was 25. now I've got a degree in computer science and I'm a professional developer.

not everyone takes the same path through life.

I was learning Java in my first programming course and making nothing worthwhile in TI basic around that age.

no.