programming help

[irish rebel]

Guys my 12 yr old son wants to learn programming I got him some books on game programming with c++ and opengl I am a network guy I have no clue what he needs
Can someone tell me what he needs on the pc running breezy badger?

Thanks in anticipation

[Kyral]

Hmm..

The "For Dummies" books are always good to me :D

As for the language. I would say C++ (Then again I'm partial to the language). I dunno. Anyone else have a good idea?

[mostwanted]

C++ is probably not the best thing to start with... something like Python would be a better choice.

[majikstreet]

I'm also 12 years old (ssssssh! don't tell anybody!!), and I am currently learning Python. Python is a bit of a strange language, but I am learning well.. I would suggest him reading these online books: "A Byte of Python" and "Dive into Python". I started reading Dive into Python, but found it was written differently, so I went back to BoP. Another one that I found is Useless Python (http://www.uselesspython.com/).... There is one last one that I plan on reading after I become fairly proficent with Python, and that is "How to Think like a Computer Scientist" (http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/).

-m

(By the way-- I have programmed before in PHP. These may not be good for non-programmers)

[Drakx]

Agreed, IMO Python will be the best bet simple and quick to learn and comes with every thing you may want for x-plattform too :), i also agree the Dummies books are helpful though ive not seen one on python :(, I learned python with a book called

"Python Programming for absolute beginner" writen by Michael Dawson, this book show game programming with python which makes it very good fun cause lets face it who dont like games ? :)

[majikstreet]

"Python Programming for absolute beginner" writen by Michael Dawson, this book show game programming with python which makes it very good fun cause lets face it who dont like games ? :)

I don't like games.


edit: fixed the quote :)

[23meg]

I wish I had access to stuff like dive into python when I was 12..

[Mike Buksas]

Guys my 12 yr old son wants to learn programming I got him some books on game programming with c++ and opengl I am a network guy I have no clue what he needs
Can someone tell me what he needs on the pc running breezy badger?

Thanks in anticipation

Make sure build-essentials is installed. This includes the GNU C/C++ compilers and other tools. I'm pretty sure python is installed by default, but if not, install python2.4 also.

He'll also need an editor. Emacs is my first choice, since it comes with language sensitive modes to make coding easier. (Keyword coloring, for example, helps you spot typos). If he decides to try python, also install emacs's python mode with sudo apt-get install python-mode

That, and a lot of encouragement.