Programming

17446 readers

95 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Follow the programming.dev instance rules
Keep content related to programming in some way
If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

snowe@programming.dev

Ategon@programming.dev

MaungaHikoi@lemmy.nz

Update: Advice re son learning to program. (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by foofiepie@lemmy.world to c/programming@programming.dev

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi all,

A fair while ago I asked the community here advice as my 8yo lad wanted to experiment with programming: Old Post.

Thanks so much for all the words of wisdom - there’s still stuff we can explore in the replies.

Thought I’d just give a little update.

So I installed dual boot Linux Mint / OSX on an old intel MacBook Air (dual boot in case his homework/school stuff needs it, but he hasn’t used OSX much!).

It was much easier than I thought it’d be. Perhaps it’s just the hardware/OS choice, but I don’t consider myself to be ‘properly’ technical and it was a breeze. Perhaps the only difficult part was creating a bootable OSX restore disk just in case I destroyed the OS… it’s almost like Mac really don’t want you to be doing this.

He’s working his way through foundational courses on programming, in codeacademy, and using scratch as usual. So far, so good.

Is there an IDE you’d recommend that has some element of a tutorial to it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My advice: make sure he has other interests and socializes.

I was obsessed with coding from age 7, and now wish I had spent that time otherwise, more being a "normal" kid and less time sitting alone giving orders to a damned computer. Once I reached my mid-twenties the joy died in the realities of the job market, and now I can't even think about that crap anymore.

You know what I enjoy now? Playing a guitar. Didn't start until age 30, and it was like a revelation.

Sorry I didn't answer your question. I still think any parent who wants to "get their child started" on something early should heed my advice and experience. I am for real a walking, talking (sometimes) warning.

[–] foofiepie@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Hah yes we try and ‘balance’ it all. He’s a voracious reader, loves his rugby and we try and get out of the house as much as possible when it’s not continuously raining, thanks Britain.