On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 1:46:10 PM UTC, Tamas Papp wrote: > > On Tue, Apr 05 2016, Páll Haraldsson wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I'm convinced Julia is the best second language to learn. Maybe, first, > if > > tutorials or books are ok, for the right project. What about libraries, > > what would you recommend? > > It is hard to recommend libraries in abstract, without knowing the > project you have in mind. > > > I try to be cautions when I recommend Julia. Julia should be ok as a > first* > > language, with a mentor. > > > > This seemed like a good book for JavaScript: > > > > https://pragprog.com/book/csjava/3d-game-programming-for-kids > > > > that I gave to a 10 year-old. I could look into how ThreeJS, just as a > > library, fits with the concepts they teach. Any other ideas, that are > > appropriate for Julia? > > > > * I know about Scratch and Alice. But for slightly older kids, Julia > seems > > better than JavaScript, as a *language*. > > I don't see how this is on-topic for this mailing list. > > > Anyone know the status of teaching Julia at Universities? > > http://julialang.org/teaching/ > > > Seems only a MATLAB replacement, not yet be there as a first > > language. It should be.. > > "First" language for which group?
Kid[s], that [I] have already taught/learned Scratch and Alice (or past that "age"), now a 12 year old. Scott Jones, is also teaching similar age. > For CS students who need to learn > about concepts, Julia has a lot of features (and thus complexity) that > is simply not needed would be a distraction in a first language. That is a perspective (that I disagree with). You do not have to learn everything at once. I'm not talking about teaching making or even using @simd, @inbounds etc. Even for an adults, that can wait. As for all programmers, learning basic stuff, loops, conditionals etc. Python, is the typical first language. The indenting may or may not be helpful. I do not see Python, as a language, as better, only the standard library and tutorials/books. Maybe I'm missing some other language that is better for adults or kids. https://sinews.siam.org/DetailsPage/tabid/607/ArticleID/744/Julia-A-Fast-Language-for-Numerical-Computing.aspx I couldn't even have done the bat-sign this easily in Logo when I was younger.. Logo went out of favor(?). > On the > other end of the spectrum, for students who just need to do basic data > analysis (with R or Python), the current Julia framework is evolving and > not as polished as it would be eventually. > > Are you teaching a course somewhere? Perhaps if you explained about the > target audience and the topic, you could get more specific > advice. I could have worded better. I'm looking for the "topics", example projects, where the libraries help, but are not immature/a hindrance. [The kid is going to learn Unity "with JavaScript" next..] Maybe, 3D is too much of a challenge, with or without 3D. Really the book, is teaching non-3D fundamentals, through game programming, starting first with the fundamentals, quickly going to 3D. For an adult, the book could even teach people stuff. I'm not aware of books for "first language" users of Julia. They could be made.. or tutorials. The tutorials I've seen are good, just not specific, except to data science. > But it is hard to imagine a scenario where Julia would be a good > first language in its current state. > You would agree, with it as a second language? But why not first? Error messages? > > Best, > > Tamas >
