If I were to help introduce programming on Mac for a high school kid who doesn't have any prior experience, what resources (online or books) will be a good starting point? The kid is pretty smart and good at figuring things out on computers on his own but haven't learned any programming, yet.
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macOS Introduction to Mac programming
- Thread starter AppleHater
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you can start from here
https://inventwithpython.com/inventwithpython_3rd.pdf
and then continue with other books here
https://inventwithpython.com
https://inventwithpython.com/inventwithpython_3rd.pdf
and then continue with other books here
https://inventwithpython.com
There are many available competent online resources ( although I'm old school and still have my books that don't vanish when there is no power or internet connection ). Some specialize in Swift and/or Objective-C ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDg-YmnNehm3KB0BpytkUJg ) others are more generic ( i.e. C tutorials ) and some are PDFs that can be downloaded and read ( http://rypress.com/tutorials/objective-c/index ). There are also other languages out there. For example: http://4toc.com/fb/index.htm is a procedural BASIC language ( FutureBASIC ) with features for every level of programmer ( i.e. includes inline use of C and Objective-C ). A lot depends on the goals of you and your student as to which approach and language is most appropriate.
As other folks have said, it's helpful to understand very roughly what sort of thing interests him. For example, making iPhone apps, making OS X apps, web design, etc and focus on something that's going to guide him in that direction. I started out on AppleScript with a little Javascript thrown in many years ago but I wouldn't recommend either of those as being sensible entry points.
I'm no fan of Python, but many folks seem to think its a good starting point. Personally, I'd look at some form of C or maybe Swift. Depending on the age of the kid, there are plenty of resources nowadays aimed at getting kids into coding, for example https://www.tynker.com (disclaimer: I have never used that site, it's just an example!)
Good luck!
I'm no fan of Python, but many folks seem to think its a good starting point. Personally, I'd look at some form of C or maybe Swift. Depending on the age of the kid, there are plenty of resources nowadays aimed at getting kids into coding, for example https://www.tynker.com (disclaimer: I have never used that site, it's just an example!)
Good luck!
I'm sorry for late reply. It's just I want to introduce programming, and since we have Mac home, I figured Mac programming. Having said that, probably, being able to produce a small app running on Mac can be a fun way to learn.
Maybe get them through a beginners tutorial on Swift then. After that, there are some fun tutorials, for example: https://www.raywenderlich.com/94649/sprite-kit-kids-swift
I would personally second Python. It comes on the mac, and it's incredibly useful across a huge variety of domains. As for stirring interest, I would suggest that doing some visually pleasing projects would do the trick there, whether it's by just plotting with matplotlib or using some gui framework, or even just generating some images of fractals or whatever and simply saving to a netpbm formatted file.
