[Chicago] python intro for 13 yo -- suggestions?

[Jason R Huggins]

"Brantley Harris" wrote on 07/11/2006 03:56:32 PM:
> Really though, one must think of the student.  If they are interested
> in art, and graphics, Flash is perfect.  If they are more
> mathmatically minded, I think Python is a better fit.  And if you
> really want to get them on a rigorous track, C/C++ all the way.

How pragmatic and sensible! :-) This reminds of some blog post I read a 
while ago that says you can never answer a "which language should I 
learn?" question without asking what you want to do with it. For many, 
many fields, though, Python is really a good start. Though the original 
question was (I think) that Python is assumed and the question is which 
tutorial to start with.

If 13 y/o is into graphics *and* math, I've had lots of fun with the 
[vpython library][1]. The screenshots don't nearly do it justice.


However, for the ultimate in "quick start", you can't get much quicker 
than trying the [JavaScript shell][2].

On that note, given the existence of the JavaScript shell, the original 
doc that Jake pointed to is [wrong about JavaScript][3]:
"""Unfortunately in JavaScript there is no easy way to type the commands 
in and see them being executed immediately as we have been doing with 
Python."""

As a Pythonist, I hate to admit it, but Why's [Try Ruby is good for 
starters][4], too.

Ian Bicking demo'd a similar Python-based 'interpreter in the browser' 
thingy a few months ago at ChiPy. It would be nice if the there was a 
polished version similar to the above interpreters for newbies to try 
python in the browser. But I digress :-)

[1]: http://www.vpython.org/vpythonprog.htm 
[2]: http://www.squarefree.com/shell/shell.html
[3]: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/tutseq1.htm
[4]: http://tryruby.hobix.com/

- Jason