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Obligatory Star Trek video clip.
Marc
Latest Article - Merkle Trees
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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In pleasing irony, Redditors tag their snark and make themselves ideal test subjects That's a brilliant idea
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There's sarcasm on the Interwebs?
No!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That's because he / they don't know the soapbox 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Who'da thunk it?
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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CS 106A is Stanford University’s introductory programming course. The module – which is also available to view on YouTube – introduces the fundamentals of coding in an accessible way, and lays the foundations for future growth. Everyone knows APL should be people's first language
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And they replaced it with JavaScript 
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Yeah. Not the direction I would have gone if you want to teach good programming ideas.
TTFN - Kent
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It could be argued that it could be ideal for teaching to code around the defects in a language.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Why not? It's an easily accessible language, which is the point. Java, C#, D, F#, C++ etc are not. Scripting languages are far more easily accessed than statically typed and compiled languages.
Even "C" is not as accessible.
The point is to get people going. Get them understanding and hooked. Once they get the basic concepts, then introduce more formal languages like Java and C#.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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We are talking about University courses here. Accessibility is far less important than learning good coding habits and JavaScript is simply horrible language for that purpose.
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Python may be a much better choice, or just about any other dynamic language.
(excepting PHP or Perl of course)
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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I can go with that
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Everyone knows APL assembly should be people's first language
FTFY!
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Nah, makes too much sense. We need to cull that herd in 1st year. They might actually understand Assembly 
TTFN - Kent
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I tend to agree, though think procedural C++ is an easier start.
Otherwise, it's like teaching someone how to be an auto mechanic by first teaching them how to use a manufacturers diagnostic machines.
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<page translation>
The guy who actually knew how to program has been kicked out, for seducing all the good-looking female students, so we're stuck with tutors who don't have a clue about programming.</page translation>
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Quote: You’re not immediately burdened with sh*t that, realistically, should come into play after your first lesson. Things like static typing, functions, and object oriented programming.
There goes the future.
«When I consider my brief span of life, swallowed up in an eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, now rather than then.» Blaise Pascal
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Yes, I also cringed at that sentence.
I don't see how quick and dirty script languages can possibly be a good introduction to programming.
Surely any half decent teacher can work with a real language and simply say "this is very important but we'll take it as read for now and revisit it in the future" when confronted with something that will arise in a subsequent chapter.
The author's approach seems to be "That's a bit tricky, isn't it children? Maybe we'd better just leave it to the grown-ups ... now, where were we? Ah, yes ... A is for Apple, B is for BSc, C is for people who can actually be bothered with the technical stuff."
Slogans aren't solutions.
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The more I think about it, it's not a bad idea. I definitely would not replace the beginning Java/beginning programming course, but having a Pre-Algebra type course in programming would be helpful to many students. It would provide multiple degree/career paths, because not everyone is meant to be an application developer.
Programming was not on my radar, but in the mid to late 90's I started creating HTML sites and eventually ended up as a web developer. I then went back to school for computer science and the first two programming course, C++ and then Java, were ridiculous for me. I needed to learn ASP and JavaScript for work, then I needed to learn C++ and Java at home. It was a great challenge that I succeeded at, but my career path might had been different, as well as a lot of students that give up. High-level programming languages are not really needed for the web designer/developers. Not only would it provide an optional degree and career path, such as strictly web development/design, students would have more success and the industry would have more specialists instead of being coupled to only computer science.
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alert('Hello, world!');
Didn't I recently see something about Google floating a proposal to remove alert from JS entirely? What'll be next, "this class best taken in IE11". 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Great, more "programmers" who don't understand what computers actually do.
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Researchers from several German universities have checked the PHP codebases of over 64,000 projects on GitHub, and found 117 vulnerabilities that they believe have been introduced through the use of code from popular but insufficiently reviewed tutorials. Copy/Paste code deemed risky
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Them as can, do.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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On Friday, April 7, the FBI arrested Zhengquan Zhang, a 31-year-old IT engineer, who now stands accused of installing malware on his employer's servers to steal proprietary source. See: "Self-fulfilling prophecy"
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