[lug] First Programming Language

[Steve Sullivan]

Hi,

This is a bit off topic but I'm hoping for some help ...

My daughter wants to learn her first programming language.
She's a business major in college, and as part of an independent
study class, she can choose which language.
The demo task is three layers ...

    1. A front end, probably just HTML/CSS
    2. A web server -- not her problem.
    3. A back end, to query a simple DB and return an answer.
      This is where she would learn her programming language.

One of her friends is recommending learning Javascript, but I
think Python3 would be a much better choice.  It's more general
purpose, and more likely to be useful in her future.  Here are my
thoughts on the demo project, starting at the back end.

    3. The backend ... She could learn Python3 and Sqlite, and use
    the Python WSGI interface from the web server.  The backend might
    be slow, but it would give her an overview of Python3 and WSGI,
    and a taste of SQL.

    2. The web server ... Either find someone else's existing web
    server, so she doesn't have to fight setting up Apache or
    whatever, or find a very simple web server offering Python the
    WSGI API.  She shouldn't waste time fighting web server
    configuration issues.

    1. The front end ... She already knows the basics of HTML and
    CSS, so this should be straightforward.  No Javascript!

What would you recommend?

As far as Python3 beginning books and sites, are there any you'd
recommend?  Looking at Amazon, Matt Harrison's Illustrated Guide
to Python 3 looks good.

Rather than ask her to learn a full IDE, my thought is just use
the Python3 command line interface.

But then I'm old fashioned ... would you recommend command line?
Or is there a simple to learn IDE you'd recommend?

Many thanks,

Steve



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Steve Sullivan      steve.sullivan at mathcom.com
720-587-7498        http://www.mathcom.com
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