From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2005-10-14T22:56:55+09:00
Subject: Re: my mother wants to code?

Francois Paul <francois@bagasie.com> wrote:
> 
> can anyone point me in the right direction? also if you think it is a 
> better idea to start programming in Java rather than Ruby, please let me 
> know why.

Here's one reason I'd *strongly* urge not using Java as a first
language: lack of support for closures. IMO closures are as fundamental
a code-structuring concept as functions and procedures are, and living
without them feels vaguely like using GOSUBs in BASIC dialects that
didn't have proper procedure support. Learning java as a first languyage
might lead her to the idea that closures are some sort of esoteric
construct only of interest to language junkies.

martin