From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2002-12-03T10:21:39+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Book for People Who Aren't (Yet) Programmers

> I heard a little while back that there might be a Ruby book in the works for
> people who don't (yet) program.  Anyone know who is working on this?

If anyone is working on this I would be very interested as well.

I am actually thinking of trying to make a tutorial for precisely this
purpose.  I'm just getting started, so there's nothing really there yet.
But you can look at what I here:

www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/ruby/index.html

> I ask because I have taught several people to program using Ruby as the
> language.  Some were adults; some kids as young as 8.  Not all of my
> experiences were successful :(, though some certainly were.
>
> In any case, I learned from each one and would like to share what I found to
> work, and what I found *not* to work.

I'd love to hear from your experience.  I'm not sure if I'll go through
with the tutorial.  I really don't know how much work it'll turn out to
be.  But I'd love to learn whatever I can from you.  I am interested in
using Ruby to teach people how to program.


> One thing I did find, though, was the Ruby is the perfect language for
> learning to program!

I feel precisely the same way (though I don't have experience to back it
up).  Ruby is a very clean, easy to understand programming language.  It
allows you to introduce object orientation if and when you want.  And when
you do, it's easy to go down to the topics.

I love how you can focus on creating a program, instead of arm-wresling
with the language.


Daniel.