Had Phyton suggested

[Steve Horsley]

P.C. wrote:
> Hi
> 
> My son like many youngsters been around computers, fast online games, he
> acturly for main part learned to read and write ,beside his second language
> english , and may I say he is quite good at it age 15 ,  but as some of you
> know, 3D games also offer edditors and script options , or rather
> programming choppers and dust clouds in scenes.
> Now beside my bad english, my problem is, that I like him to learn decent
> programming ------- sure I know the best way to learn is looking at source
> code and change a bit here or there to se the actural results, but with his
> knowleage about programming he proberly fail to se how functions work and
> even he made some quite nice effects in the scenes in "Operation falshpoint
> resistance" , I just know that he would profit from learning from buttom up,
> a real programming language.
> Now from an old friend I been advised Phyton, and as I know a bit about
> programming ( Lisp ) , I agrea after checking a few links ; guess Phyton is
> very much C++ like ,so investing in his interests programming scenes for
> games, could be in his faviour .
> Now I agrea that my own knowleage about compilers and more advanced
> programming are limited, and my fear is that I will need some sort of C.
> compiler causing day's and weeks of trouble setting up ------- or what do
> the group think ; my question is, if there today are compilers that is set
> up and work as simple as for instance the first Pascal compilers .
> Well I agrea that my own trouble programming, never been the actural
> programming, but all the silli trouble with compilers, as you se amatures
> don't care if the program spend a bit more memmory ,as long as it work and
> acturly produce compiled code.
> Guess my question is, if it is possible to find a compiler that is fit for
> amatures, one that an amature will not have to fight before it is ready to
> use. One where you ,as when I learned programming , don't need to be a
> compiler specialist before you even learn programming.
> 
> P.C.
> 
> 
Python is an interpreted language, not a compiled one. So you don't need 
to worry about compilers at all. This makes it a little easier to get 
into than compiled languages. I thin python is a very good introduction 
to someone who knows nothing about programming.

At the risk of making a lot of python fans angry, I would also suggest 
that you look at java. This IS a compiled language (although ironically, 
the compiled bytecode is interpreted). I suggest this for a few reasons:
* You cannot really avoid thinking in an object-oriented way when 
writing java. I suspect that python will allow you to develop some very 
nasyt habits.
* The java tutorial is massive, and has loads of examples.
* I have not seen anything like BlueJ for python. BlueJ is an excellent 
beginners IDE with editor, debugger, and a UML-like diagram that shows 
how your classes interconnect.

Better, learn a little of both languages.

Steve