Learning a programming language is easy. Learning how to program is hard. :)
In university classes, I had to read and write a lot of pseudocode. It was good, because it helped me focus on the important stuff, without the syntax of a language getting in the way. It was bad, because it could not provide any feedback, and therefore I couldn't be certain that it was correct.
A slightly different question might be, "What programming language is best for learning how to program?"
One of the best essays on the topic that I have encountered is Bret Victors Learnable Programming. It is a long read, but fascinating. It presents "a set of design principles for an environment and language suitable for learning." He happens to target javascript and Processing as two languages that are not suitable for learning, but it would probably be difficult to find any language that meets all the criteria.
It would be an interesting exercise to try and rank programming languages and environments by the criteria he presents. But, much like pseudocode from my professors, I will leave that part as an exercise for the reader.
On one hand that's preposterous.
On the other hand, that's almost exactly what a time-travelling debugger + hot module reloading + strictly typed language + intellisense give you.
But for real projects and not bouncing balls.
Learning a programming language is easy. Learning how to program is hard. :)
In university classes, I had to read and write a lot of pseudocode. It was good, because it helped me focus on the important stuff, without the syntax of a language getting in the way. It was bad, because it could not provide any feedback, and therefore I couldn't be certain that it was correct.
A slightly different question might be, "What programming language is best for learning how to program?"
One of the best essays on the topic that I have encountered is Bret Victors Learnable Programming. It is a long read, but fascinating. It presents "a set of design principles for an environment and language suitable for learning." He happens to target javascript and Processing as two languages that are not suitable for learning, but it would probably be difficult to find any language that meets all the criteria.
It would be an interesting exercise to try and rank programming languages and environments by the criteria he presents. But, much like pseudocode from my professors, I will leave that part as an exercise for the reader.
On one hand that's preposterous.
On the other hand, that's almost exactly what a time-travelling debugger + hot module reloading + strictly typed language + intellisense give you.
But for real projects and not bouncing balls.
What an amazing article. Thank you!
I joined this community exactly to have things like that brought to my attention...
It's actually a much better question. Thanks for the article. I bookmarked it for a future read.