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Comment: Re:DO NOT (Score 1) 962

by rpsoucy (#26073509) Attached to: Best Introduction To Programming For Bright 11-14-Year-Olds?

It depends on the target group.

Visual Basic can be a good teaching tool if you're working with students who have never written a line of code before, because they can actually produce results that resemble what an application is supposed to look like in their mind. For these students it can be very empowering and may actually get them interested in programming.

The important part is that you don't waste time teaching the IDE or the Syntax, but rather you focus on programming concepts (variables, operators, loops, control, etc).

If the class is filled with gifted students who have already written some code, it might be better to jump into C and teach them the things that most new programmers struggle with like pointers, computer architecture, and operating systems. For these students, starting with VB would be an insult.

I agree there are a lot of people who abuse VB and use it for too long (a full semester of VB for example). But it is more than appropriate for a short introduction class targeted at young children who may have never seen a command line.

You also have to acknowledge that Visual Basic .NET is a different beast than VB. VB .NET is a fairly strong and powerful language and more than suitable for a large variety of applications today... .NET isn't my first choice, personally, but I'm tired of all the fanboys here making emotional statements on programming languages being horrible because it's not their choice, rather than being pragmatic and acknowledging their individual strengths.

VB .NET might be the perfect fit for this guy.
