[wplug] 45 Minutes with High Schoolers

[Bill Moran]

J Aaron Farr <farra at apache.org> wrote:

> Friday I have the opportunity to spend about 45 minutes with kids
> enrolled in the computer programming track at a local vo-tech school. 
> The message I'd really like to send to these kids is that they don't
> need to wait until the graduate or go to college to start doing some
> interesting programming (unlike some other subjects taught in vo-tech
> or high school).  With that in mind, I'm pondering over handing out
> articles by Paul Graham or ESR and maybe even a Knoppix CD or a CD of
> useful programming tools for Windows.
> 
> Has anyone else done something similar?  Any suggestions?

I've never done anything quite like this, but I have suggestions:

1) I'm not sure, but does the Open CD have any devel tools on it?
2) M$ wants you to pay for their C# IDE, however, if you have the
   .NET stuff installed (free download) you can develop C# programs
   with any text editor and compile them with the csc.exe command
   line tool.
3) Java is a free download.  Eclipse is a free download and has
   everything you need to develop in Java (full IDE).  Works on
   Windows as well as POSIX.
4) Don't Python and Ruby have Windows versions?
5) Doesn't Cygwin include C and C++ compilers?
6) Mingw is GCC for Windows.

So, even if the kids aren't able to reinstall, they should still be
able to work on "stuff".  

I'm willing to compile and burn a stack of CDs, if you'd like.  Just
say the word.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com