From: Tom Ayerst <twa@...>
Date: 2005-10-14T23:16:55+09:00
Subject: Re: my mother wants to code?

While I agree that the IDE learning curve obscures the language learning 
  I cannot think that using a language that requires make is a good idea 
for a newbie.

That is the beauty of starting with a scripting language, you just type 
in the code, save it and run it.  It doesn't require any "build" 
concepts to be mastered before coding and there is less to go wrong.

"c" and "make" are a terrible choice to learn about programming (though 
often a great choice for actually doing things).

Tom

jussij@zeusedit.com wrote:
> 
> Taking the text editor/make file approach will result in a
> much better programmer, because it forces the student to
> learn the language and nothing but the language.
> 
> Using the IDE approach, too many details are hidden by the
> IDE, so in essence all you are learning is the IDE.