[Yr7-10it] Re : .. Programming for all levels

[victor rajewski]

On 9/17/07, Costello, Rob R <Costello.Rob.R at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>
> Following all these programming discussions with interest
> Here's a thought for you...
> How did you all learn programming?

Simultaneously at uni and at work. The first-year engineering
programming subject was awfully taught, in an awful language (Eiffel)
(well, at least awful as a first language where you don't know jack
about programming), and I don't think anyone in the course learnt a
thing from it. Second year I was doing industrial experience, as well
as a C course, where the projects were created by other students, as
well as a 'free choice' thesis-type assignment.

Despite being a computer geek for ages, I hadn't really gotten into
programming until that point as it had little relevance to me. Once it
had relevance (interesting choice of project on one side, and money on
the other) I was in there, guns blazing.

> What role did formal school have, if any?

Nothing at school, see above for university.

> How much personal time?

Once I get started on a problem, it's hard to drag me away from the
screen, even to eat. It just has to be a good problem :)

I guess my experience is that I played around with computers (games,
optimising desktops to run on low-spec hardware, pretty formatting,
etc) for a long time, but didn't try programming till quite late (2nd
year uni), yet still managed to get a grasp of enough languages and
programming concepts that I can program in a new language within
minutes (maybe hours) of seeing the reference manual for the first
time.

So I don't think kids particularly need to be exposed to programming per se.

vik