From: Timothy Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2006-06-12T02:55:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby for Highschoolers?

Steven Davidovitz wrote:
> I think non-technical High Schoolers would definitely benefit from learning Ruby before moving on to other statically-typed languages. I am a junior next year and we only have one Computer Science course that teaches Java. I have a couple friends who took it this year and some of the code they have written this year could have benefited from prior knowledge of any basic programming. I taught myself Ruby using the Pickaxe book among others and I would have to say it is just absolutely fun to program in Ruby.
>
> The IDE could be a problem, but if anything, it could probably be coded in Ruby using one of the toolkits in a couple days/weeks (using Fox, Tk, etc.).
>   

I know this will be controversial, but...IDE? Why do you need an IDE? 
They're learning programming, not clicking on things. They can write 
their Ruby programs using whatever text editor is convenient, vim, 
emacs, Scite, whatever.

"IDE? We don't need no stinkin' IDE!"