Anyone Can Code

What’s the best language for a beginning programmer?

I first dabbled in programming using BASIC, especially its various later forms such as QBASIC and QuickBasic. But I never got too far self-teaching myself this way. The true revolution for me came with the Cybiko handheld computer in 2001. I started programming games and apps for the Cybiko using Greg Smith’s B2C (Basic-to-C) compiler.

The Cybiko SDK uses the C programming language, but that was too advanced for me at the time. So I jumped into B2C, and by having lots of late-night IM conversations with Greg, learned about programming on a device with very limited graphics and CPU power.

Now, I’ve also programmed using Visual Basic, PHP, Java, C++, and most recently, Python.

Visual Basic is great for easily making GUIs. PHP is by far the best for easy web scripting. I love using Java for object oriented programming. And Python is great for newbies.

This past week, I helped a friend with his final project for CSCI 101. I was amazed by how little he was actually taught. It seems that I am right: introductory programming courses are almost always a failure. It is not the students fault. Rather, the teachers and curriculum are too assuming: the professors learned this 40 years ago, so how would they know how to teach an introduction?

The curriculum itself is not conducive to a good introduction. A good intro requires serious hands-on and 1-on-1 tutoring and mentoring, just like I had with Greg Smith. It also needs creativity: I would like students to come up with the own projects on what to make.

In my own past, I came up with some pretty neat ideas. First, a text-based Pokemon RPG, as part of my little website called “Gengar Studios”. Then, on the Cybiko, I created CyOS XP, which was a version of the Cybiko Operating System which looked more like Windows XP, which was really hot at the time. I also tried to recreate Phoenix, the classic space shoot-em-up for TI calculators. And of course, I loved trying to take full advantage of the 900 MHz wireless communications capabilities of the device.

Today, the Cybiko sells on eBay for somewhere around $10, even for a new model.

So where should we start?