So far, I have read the Apress Beginning Ruby book and some of The Pragmatic Programmer book on Ruby.

I spent two hours looking at different approaches to teaching different levels of different languages. Lately I have taken an interest in software developed for the purpose of teaching basic concepts and implementations of computer programming. It was incredibly interesting to see the vast number of approaches to conveying the basics and also the intricacies of languages like Javascript, PHP, Ruby, and Python. I even found some colorful illustrated books attempting to teach C and C++! From those particular titles, though, I came to the hasty conclusion that colored illustrations and comic sans’y fonts don’t necessarily make it easier to grasp concepts. In fact, sometimes such a flowery approach can even distract from the concepts being taught. For me (and arguably most new learners), the delivery of the author and the clarity of examples and structure make or break the author’s approach. (I did buy one of the said ‘flowery’ books and will review once I am finished.)

For a compromised solution of visuals and thorough structure/delivery, I found Peachpit Press has a line of books called “Visual Quickstart Guide”’s. I can deal with the slightly presumptious title of the series, only because such a line of books exists that claims you can learn a language in 10-24 hours (depending on the thickness of the book and the complexity of the subject, I guess.) Compared to that claim, visual quickstart didn’t irk me too much. In the Visual Quickstart Guide series, there is a strong visual component, though I’m unsure as to how well these visualizations aid the teaching of the subject matter. I did buy one of these books as well– on Javascript and Ajax. I will review my experience with this book at some point, too.

The Head Start O’Reilly books looked really interesting in their approach, as well. These books utilize comic sansy fonts and waste a lot of space with illustrations, but cover a lot of ground from beginner to intermediate throughout the course of the text. Throughout the books, readers are prompted to solve problems (on lines meant for text! write your code in pencil!) and to think critically about a given problem or prospective solution. I was deciding between their book on Programming (actually an intro to Python that also covers basic programming concepts) and Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners (which also uses Python the same way.) In the end, the latter was roughly $20 cheaper, so it won. I was also attracted to the fact that it was geared towards kids, but not explicity limited to kids by welcoming beginners as its readers as well. The Head Start books do not explicitly state that they are for kids or beginners in their title, but it is clearly implied when reading the book description and flipping through the illustrated pages and goofy fonts. In fact, the two books covered basically the same items (and utilized similar tools for their tutorials even.) After I am finished with Hello World! perhaps I will invest in a Head Start book for another subject. I’d be interested to know if anyone has read any of those books to learn a language, and how it went.

On an entirely unrelated note, first Linux workshop at Interlock was a success! I need to go home now though. I will regail my blog with my readings and childish Python adventures soon.