Re: Need C++ tutor for 10th grade student

["Kristian Erik Hermansen" <user=152@nabble.blu.org>]

 On Feb 13, 2008 4:41 PM, Eugene Gorelik <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> I think Python would be a good language to learn programming. 
> It has a very clean syntax and require programmer to write readable code. It 
> also has an OO part. 
> The good thing about C is that student can learn memory allocation and 
> system calls better than with other languages. 

Agreed.  Python is a suitable language.  My younger brother Peter and 
I made a game using pygame with it.  He had fun.  However, C is a 
*proper* language to understand how computer's work at the OS level. 
It is sometimes hard to keep a kid's attention though with pointers! 

My first actual programming course was C++ in high school, and you 
quickly learn that things can explode rather quickly.  I still 
remember my first programming assignment.  Mr. Kaupp gave us a flow 
chart for determining if it was a leap year or not.  We had to 
implement code using the diagram.  It was a fun little first project, 
but didn't really require the power of C++.  Basically just an 
introduction to iostreams, initializing variables (our compiler didn't 
do that for us!), math ops, looping, and logic.  It turns out that the 
flow chart he was giving out to the class had one small error.  He 
hadn't noticed it in all the previous years he gave the assignment.  I 
wrote my program in such a manner as to correct for his error, and I 
updated the flow chart for him :-)  However, I eventually got kicked 
out of the class for circumventing the security system on the PCs by 
writing a C++ program to open up the swap file and scan for the admin 
password.  Well, it was fun while it lasted and I learned some 
valuable lessons that day...heh.  I now understand that doing stupid 
things just for fun is a very bad waste of energy.  It is easier to 
destroy than create.  Breaking security is the easy part.  Making a 
system unbreakable is the more challenging part and is nearly an 
intractable problem requiring a huge knowledge base... 
-- 
Kristian Erik Hermansen 
"Know something about everything and everything about something." 

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