Re: Suitability of Lua as a First Programming Language?

[liam mail <liam.list@...>]

On 1 December 2012 17:19, martinwguy <martinwguy@gmail.com>

I acknowledge that you have "taught Computer Science at a UK
university" but will all respect I disagree with your last paragraph.

On 1 December 2012 17:19, martinwguy <martinwguy@gmail.com> wrote:
> People often ask me which programming language they should learn
> first, and I always reply "It depends. What do you want to do? It's
> like you are ask me how to work wood, but I don't know whether you
> want to make chess sets or to build bridges."

Sorry this seems completely wrong to me. The question is not how can I
do something with language X yet which language to learn first which
implies that it is the start of a learning process and the first
language may have little or nothing to do with the grand idea you want
to construct after (semi) mastering programming. Likening it wood
knowledge similarly seems well off base, it does not matter what you
want to build you have to understand the materials and the tools
before embarking on a grand project; if I were to bring this into the
real world such as you did I would tell you how many hours/days/weeks
I had to spend hacksawing and filing metal blocks before I was allowed
to do anything more with metal.

I feel you need to build a solid foundation onto which knowledge is grown.

--Liam