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Re: How to get one interested in programming!

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On Wed, 2011-06-29 at 22:49 -0700, vaib wrote:
 
<snip>
> Now I have a question for a friend of mine. Now she is a non-
> programmer and has taken entry to a bachelors in technology course.
> The only problem is that she hasn't got the kind of exposure one
> should have for programming. She has never programmed and picking up
> these think language books scares the shit out of her and I personally
> think is not the way to go.
> 
> So how can I get her interested?

I used to teach programming to adults so there is some experience behind
these other otherwise random remarks.

1.  Be encouraging.  If your encouragement does not sound over the top
to you, you are probably holding back too much!  Obviously avoid
sounding patronising, but fear of a task you may have been led to
believe is beyond you is a powerful thing and it needs to chipped away
at relentlessly.

2.  Pick the right problem domain for examples and exercises.  Number
sequences are good if she is a mathematician, but can be deadly dull to
others.  I found an almost universal solution in graphics.  I wrote a
very simple graphics "library"[1] and the students used it to draw
pictures.  They got to choose the pictures -- but they has to structure
the program in a way that suited the image.  If there were duplicated
elements, I'd want to see a function (yes, function were taught first
because anything else).  Variation of an element should be done via
parameters.  Loops should be used for repeated elements where the
repeated had a pattern, and so on.

This was good for a large class so its merit was its wide (but by no
means universal) appeal.  You are dealing with one person so you can
probably be more specific.  If words are more her thing there are a lots
options there -- a simple hangman game, word counting, word stemming,
spell checking, crossword puzzle design and/or solvers.  If it's music,
here's another whole world of interesting computer programs waiting to
be written.

3.  Some analogies can be helpful. Everyone knows about programs --
though not always computer programs.  Sheet music is a program for a
machine called a pianist.  A knitting pattern, when executed by the
right machine, has a jumper as its output.  A recipe, is a program for a
meal.  These analogies stress that programming is creative -- you are
the composer, the clothes designer, the innovative chef.  (BTW, all of
these exhibit a close parallel to computer programs.  You can find in
them parametrized functions, modules, loops and so on.)

4.  Sadly, some people just never seem to get programming.  I've seen
this only a few times (the students were self selecting as wanting to
learn it so I suspect it more widespread than I every noticed).  It
could always be bad teaching, after many years and many students I've
decided I think there really are some people who won't ever make
programmers.  I don't mean won't make good ones -- good anything are
rare -- I mean won't write anything but the simplest program, and that
with a lot of help.

5.  At the risk of trotting out stereotypes, men tend to over-estimate
their understanding (the gist will do and is taken as having understood)
while women tend under-estimate it (any slight doubt and the whole idea
seems shakey, even if they could apply it right away).  Don't take "I'm
not sure I've got that" literally -- get the student to try it and see.
I had a student with a PhD in Astrophysics who said that all the time
and she "got" it better than most of the class most of the time.

<snip>
[1] A C++ class in fact.

-- 
Ben
(Away from home Usenet feed: reading and posting likely to be erratic.)

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How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-06-29 22:49 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 10:39 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-30 06:58 -0700
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 23:17 +0200
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-07-02 19:28 +0000
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:09 -0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-01 00:45 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-06-30 10:18 +0100
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-01 00:49 -0700
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-01 05:19 -0700
        Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:26 -0700
          Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-03 06:38 -0700
            Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-03 09:03 -0700
              Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 12:29 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! Joe Wright <joewwright@comcast.net> - 2011-07-03 20:04 -0400
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "James" <no@spam.invalid> - 2011-07-03 17:06 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-05 22:17 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-07 04:31 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "James" <no@spam.invalid> - 2011-07-11 22:23 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-12 00:32 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris M. Thomasson" <cristom@charter.net> - 2011-07-12 00:50 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 00:36 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris M. Thomasson" <cristom@charter.net> - 2011-07-12 00:52 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-07-12 23:39 +0000
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2011-07-02 11:46 +0100
        Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:27 -0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 00:51 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 09:52 -0400
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 00:50 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Jongware <jongware@no-spam.plz> - 2011-06-30 17:05 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:16 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! JJ <jaejunks@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-01 02:31 +0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:20 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-07-03 12:02 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 12:07 -0700

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