What comp language should I teach my 10 year old son who is interested in programming and game design?
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M$2 Answers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(book)
It will give him solid fundamentals and make him bitter, both very important ingredients for success in the programming field.
Game "design" is more of an artistic thing, in 23 years programming I know a grand total of one programmer that has made the switch to game programming, almost everyone else either dropped out, or is still doing custom programming (which is what I do).
On the programming side, he can't go wrong learning proper C first, because then everything else is going to be easy. For example, he would be able to look at PHP, Perl or even C# and understand more or less what is going on, because their syntax borrows from C.
Whatever you do, don't let him hit the Basic language side first, which was my mistake. Basic is super simple to learn, but you learn some bad things that will take years to unlearn. It is OK to hit the Basic track once he understands C, because by then he'll know better.
The good news is that you won't be spending a lot of money. The book is cheap, and can be found used for very little money. All of the tools are free, so no worrying about blowing cash on software he might not like. Even if he gets tempted by the dark side (disclaimer, I *am* a card-carrying member of the .net framework cult) and decides to learn Microsoft-centric programming, they offer plenty of entry-level tools for free.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
