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Re: A small challenge at beginner's level

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On Thursday, August 3, 2017 at 9:47:12 AM UTC-4, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
> String.format("you have%5.5s.",String.format("%"+(1+4*Math.round(Math.random()))+".1s"," lost")+"won")
> 
> certainly newbie level ;-)

Stefan's posts don't show up in Google Groups, so I'd like to see the original full question.
The first simple beginner's challenge should of course be the FizzBuzz test.

I agree with the sentiment of this thread, beginner challenges should be practical.  Don't ask them to write obscure logic or syntax they'll likely never need in the real world.

I've only tried to teach programming to a couple people who were incapable of learning (to verify, had another developer also fail to teach them), so I'm not sure what a typical programmer needs to hear to get started on their first training of their first ever programming language.  My first language was BASIC in 8th grade, a few decades ago.

Now I already know more than a few languages myself, but when I teach myself a new language I like to copy and paste working code then start changing it to do something different.  I'm not sure how well this would translate to a class if each student would want to personalize their code to enjoy learning.  Maybe one wants to write a program that has to do with dogs, and another with cars.  Just in the end make sure they can code.  One guy I tried to teach was completely clueless and had a BS in programming from a college that apparently teaches programming theory with no hands on.

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Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Andreas Leitgeb <avl@logic.at> - 2017-08-03 13:42 +0000
  Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Andreas Leitgeb <avl@logic.at> - 2017-08-03 14:02 +0000
  Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2017-08-03 22:47 +0000
  Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-08-08 08:01 -0700
    Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Sebastian <nowhere@nirvana.org> - 2017-08-08 22:59 +0200
      Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2017-08-09 05:16 -0700
    Re: A small challenge at beginner's level Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2017-08-08 21:00 -0400

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