From: junk5@...
Date: 2005-10-11T21:16:54+09:00
Subject: Re: my mother wants to code?

> She has no computer experience, but she is surrounded with programmers
> (three sons and a husband) and she wants to be able to understand what
> we are talking about.
[Snip]
> My little brother is busy teaching her Java but I feel Ruby is the
> better (friendlier, more productive) language.

I don't think the main issue here is language advocacy. I think it's
that "too many cooks will spoil the broth". If your mother is getting
conflicting advice from two (or possibly four) people, she's going to
get confused. I would, wouldn't you?

It's possible to learn to program in either Java or Ruby --- they both
seem reasonable starter (and enterprise-ready) languages to me. There
are more languages that have C-like syntax (C, C++, Java, C# etc.),
while Ruby's syntax (which is nicer than C-like syntaxes IMHO) is less
transferable. So if she wants to find employment, understanding C-like
syntax will be useful.

My advice would be to sit back and let your mother learn Java from just
your brother. If she 'gets' programming in Java, she'll be able to get
Ruby. If she doesn't get programming in Java, you might say to her "can
I show you a different approach" and she might understand what all this
programming stuff is about. But some people just don't seem to have
that ability to abstract problems into code, in which case language
choice won't matter.

If she does get Java, once she's had a bit of experience ask if she'd
like to see Ruby. If you can show her m lines of Ruby that does the
same as n lines of Java, where m << n, for a range of common tasks, I
bet she'll be a convert.

But don't bombard her with a language war. It'll just put her off.