> There's nothing like the joy of programming for the very first time
The first time I had an idea of what programming was, was when I saw my brother trying to explain to me that the window had code that ran it. Of course, I ignored him...
We later did Delphi at school, which was maybe a crazy pedagogical decision. The only thing I would say pedagogically useful was that you wrote PUBLIC and PRIVATE for variables, but C or Java has that for functions.
One way in which I would say my fascination differed is this:
> the realization that you can create something that works with code
A lot of programmers mention the ability to write concrete instructions as their first realisation. OP is closer to my experience, but to me the a-ha moment was more surreal: It is strange to me, even today, how a computer can even exist at all. I often refer to that when I think the world is unstructured.
So, things like NAND gates (and fully homomorphic encryption) are almost mystical; more generally, I feel like computers are something of a vindication for mathematics that started in the Renaissance. Things can be mystical and mundane at the same time. There is a joke about this along the lines of a specific type of medical doctor, but I don't think I can post it here...
C doesn't have "public" and "private" at all. Java has them for both functions and variables (so long as they are members), as does Delphi. The only difference between the two in that regard is that Java requires visibility on every declaration, while in Delphi using the keyword sets it for all following declarations, until another keyword changes it.
On the whole, I don't see a problem with doing Delphi (or Free Pascal + Lazarus) in school, especially if students have studied Pascal earlier - it teaches them many of the same concepts they'll later see in the likes of Java and C++, and it gives them powerful tools to create "real" GUI apps. There are better options these days, but it's not the worst one.
You're right about C; I forgot that Java added it.
I think that Delphi could be a good language to teach in, but in practice it doesn't seem to be. You lose a lot of students along the way that feel it's irrelevant. In classes where you have a really good teacher they would add in "modules" of their own, irrespective of whether the syllabus makes sense or not. Often, however, a class barely gets through the standard workload to start off with.
The first time I had an idea of what programming was, was when I saw my brother trying to explain to me that the window had code that ran it. Of course, I ignored him...
We later did Delphi at school, which was maybe a crazy pedagogical decision. The only thing I would say pedagogically useful was that you wrote PUBLIC and PRIVATE for variables, but C or Java has that for functions.
One way in which I would say my fascination differed is this:
> the realization that you can create something that works with code
A lot of programmers mention the ability to write concrete instructions as their first realisation. OP is closer to my experience, but to me the a-ha moment was more surreal: It is strange to me, even today, how a computer can even exist at all. I often refer to that when I think the world is unstructured.
So, things like NAND gates (and fully homomorphic encryption) are almost mystical; more generally, I feel like computers are something of a vindication for mathematics that started in the Renaissance. Things can be mystical and mundane at the same time. There is a joke about this along the lines of a specific type of medical doctor, but I don't think I can post it here...