<div dir="ltr">Done, use: <a href="http://leanpub.com/functionalerlang/c/FreeForKids">http://leanpub.com/functionalerlang/c/FreeForKids</a> which is also listed on the website itself.<div><br></div><div>-Mark</div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 9:14 PM, Mark Nijhof <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mark.nijhof@cre8ivethought.com" target="_blank">mark.nijhof@cre8ivethought.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<p dir="ltr">Not sure how much it helps but I am more then happy to have an unending (and publicly visible) coupon to get my book for free for kids. It is not specifically targeted to kids but does have a very high example driven approach. I.e. together we build stuff. Will make one tonight.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://gettingfunctionalwitherlang.com" target="_blank">http://gettingfunctionalwitherlang.com</a> (btw not yet done).</p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<p dir="ltr">-Mark</p></font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jun 16, 2014 8:58 PM, <<a href="mailto:lloyd@writersglen.com" target="_blank">lloyd@writersglen.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hello,<br>
<br>
So many great ideas. So many talented contributors. A fantasy---<br>
<br>
One or more of...<br>
<br>
- a website<br>
- hosting platform<br>
- an e-book - free for download<br>
- a hard-cover book - royalties kick back to help kids<br>
- a hardware platform - profits kick back to help kids<br>
<br>
Projects<br>
<br>
- build your own website<br>
- chat with friends<br>
- organize your collections<br>
- build a multi-player game<br>
- control a robot<br>
- control your house<br>
- build your own supercomputer<br>
????<br>
<br>
Contest for project submissions<br>
<br>
Team<br>
<br>
- dedicated Erlang volunteers<br>
- perhaps formalize with a foundation ala Raspberry Pi<br>
<br>
Process<br>
<br>
- Dream<br>
- Brainstorm<br>
- Set goals<br>
- Organize<br>
- Delegate<br>
- Produce<br>
<br>
Platform<br>
<br>
- Software projects can be done on Windows assuming easy peasy Erlang install<br>
<br>
- How can we get youngsters into Linux?<br>
<br>
- A hardware platform would open up robotics and control applications:<br>
<br>
Cheap (under $100) ARM boards<br>
<br>
-- Arduino etc.<br>
<br>
-- Raspberry Pi<br>
<br>
-- I have an Odroid U3 on my desk. No time to fire it up yet; but very compact, quiet, low power, plenty of computing power, runs Linux. Total of $90 for board, pwr supply, HDMI cable, wi-fi module, and case. Would need an MicroSD card with Linux and Erlang installed.<br>
<br>
Over the past year there have been a slew of such devices hitting the market and more coming.<br>
<br>
Can we get /software/hardware cos to help sponsor the effort?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
<br>
Lloyd<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: "Ferenc Holzhauser" <<a href="mailto:ferenc.holzhauser@gmail.com" target="_blank">ferenc.holzhauser@gmail.com</a>><br>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2014 1:30pm<br>
To: "Tony Rogvall" <<a href="mailto:tony@rogvall.se" target="_blank">tony@rogvall.se</a>><br>
Cc: "<a href="mailto:erlang-questions@erlang.org" target="_blank">erlang-questions@erlang.org</a>" <<a href="mailto:erlang-questions@erlang.org" target="_blank">erlang-questions@erlang.org</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [erlang-questions] Erlang for youngsters<br>
<br>
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Robotics is really nice but in this case accessibility is even nicer. It is<br>
great if kids can play after class too with interesting things without<br>
having to put items of fairly significant value (for some) on their<br>
<whatever present giving thing comes up next> wishlist. These days a<br>
computer with internet access can be a fascinatingly accessible way of<br>
creativity. An idea could be to make a simple game backend to compete with<br>
their friends and fellow students (e.g. a 2d tank shooting game or<br>
something). Eventually with chat and similar functions to add. Then the<br>
teacher could make things go wrong on the server(s) that they'd need to fix<br>
(distribute/scale/fail over) depending on their progress. You could lure<br>
them into AI like things too if you fancy. I'm sure someone with the skills<br>
(e.g. SVG/ezwebframe) and time could make some simple client "building<br>
blocks" work for something like this.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 16 June 2014 18:12, Tony Rogvall <<a href="mailto:tony@rogvall.se" target="_blank">tony@rogvall.se</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
><br>
> On 16 jun 2014, at 13:55, Mark Nijhof <<a href="mailto:mark.nijhof@cre8ivethought.com" target="_blank">mark.nijhof@cre8ivethought.com</a>><br>
> wrote:<br>
><br>
> +1 on this, this rings very true to home. But I also believe that it needs<br>
> to return results quickly. I.e. building a game is great, but if they have<br>
> to "code" for days before they see something happen then they loose<br>
> interest (assumption). So preparing "building blocks" might be a good<br>
> approach and have them first implement higher level stuff and then step by<br>
> step dig deeper and implement the building blocks you prepared.<br>
><br>
> An other exercise I planned is to program a drone (not sure about the<br>
> language there yet) to fly an obstacle course. So they see it is not just<br>
> something that happens on their iPads ;)<br>
><br>
> You program drone in Erlang of course :-)<br>
><br>
> <a href="https://github.com/tonyrog/edrone" target="_blank">https://github.com/tonyrog/edrone</a><br>
><br>
> /Tony<br>
><br>
> -Mark<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya <<br>
> <a href="mailto:mahesh@dieswaytoofast.com" target="_blank">mahesh@dieswaytoofast.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> The most important thing here I believe is to have a nice collection of<br>
>>> simple tasks/problems that are appealing to the target audience and best<br>
>>> (easiest/nicest) solved in Erlang.<br>
>><br>
>> Amen!<br>
>> The least relevant part of teaching kids programming is the syntax, or<br>
>> the choice of language - they don't, and won't, give a s**t about it.<br>
>> As a simple thought experiment, just look at how you raised your kids in<br>
>> a multi-lingual environment (yes my American brethren, this is hard.<br>
>> Pretend :-) ) Notice how they - fluidly - bounce across languages,<br>
>> massacring every grammar rule ever, but quite happily making sure that you<br>
>> understand that "I amn't going to eat pea, ನಾನು ತಿನ್ನಲ್ಲ, ನಾನು ತಿನ್ನಲ್ಲ,<br>
>> odio odio odio la piselli, i don't wanna, where is my red truck?"<br>
>> Mind you, they will pick up the rules over time, but the key here is the<br>
>> importance of the problem at hand ("How To Avoid Eating Peas") - the more<br>
>> immediately relevant it is to the young 'uns, the more rapidly they will<br>
>> pick up the tools, the specifics of the language be damned.<br>
>><br>
>> Cheers<br>
>><br>
>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 6:55 AM, Ferenc Holzhauser <<br>
>> <a href="mailto:ferenc.holzhauser@gmail.com" target="_blank">ferenc.holzhauser@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>>> The most important thing here I believe is to have a nice collection of<br>
>>> simple tasks/problems that are appealing to the target audience and best<br>
>>> (easiest/nicest) solved in Erlang. That's a bit of a challenge considering<br>
>>> that Erlang is created to solve problems that are rather "industrial" and<br>
>>> most people "from outside" can't really relate to. If the audience is not<br>
>>> comfortable with understanding the problem itself then it is tricky to make<br>
>>> them understand/like the solution too.<br>
>>><br>
>>> This we can see with many new people getting into Erlang: The problems<br>
>>> they are given are new and difficult to understand. So they often just go<br>
>>> off and eagerly try to solve all sort of issues they are familiar with<br>
>>> (even when they are not relevant in the particular case) before even trying<br>
>>> to understand what the real challenge is. Then they start complaining that<br>
>>> Erlang is not very good for some/many of those issues they are busy with.<br>
>>><br>
>>> And other way around: people coming to Erlang with the right<br>
>>> understanding of the problem area it is made for find it amazingly simple<br>
>>> to learn.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Coming from the wrong (or right ?) background my imagination fails to<br>
>>> come up with these appealing challenges for the youngster target group, but<br>
>>> I'm sure many of you can do much better.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Ferenc<br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> On 16 June 2014 11:31, Miles Fidelman <<a href="mailto:mfidelman@meetinghouse.net" target="_blank">mfidelman@meetinghouse.net</a>><br>
>>> wrote:<br>
>>><br>
>>>> Garrett Smith wrote:<br>
>>>><br>
>>>>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 9:51 AM, Torben Hoffmann<br>
>>>>> <<a href="mailto:torben.hoffmann@erlang-solutions.com" target="_blank">torben.hoffmann@erlang-solutions.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> -snip-<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> I think that a learning resource focused on teaching people the<br>
>>>>>> Erlang model from the<br>
>>>>>> ground up would be a great improvement. A clear narrative around how<br>
>>>>>> do we solve a<br>
>>>>>> problem the Erlang way. Teaching the basic constructs is not the<br>
>>>>>> problem.<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> My initial target for such a learning resources would be young people<br>
>>>>>> in the higher<br>
>>>>>> grades of elementary school, say 12-15 years. Why? Because I want to<br>
>>>>>> influence them<br>
>>>>>> before their minds are totally corrupted by other programming models.<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>>> I don't think we would have to dumb anything down in particular for<br>
>>>>>> this group - we<br>
>>>>>> just have to find a cool example and organise the learning around how<br>
>>>>>> to become so<br>
>>>>>> good that one can solve such a problem.<br>
>>>>>> Some sort of game will probably be the best candidate, say, some sort<br>
>>>>>> of Transport<br>
>>>>>> Tycoon clone?!?!<br>
>>>>>><br>
>>>>> I don't have enough experience teaching programming to this age group<br>
>>>>> to provide anything more than a hunch. But I suspect that the Erlang<br>
>>>>> way, which is hard enough for very seasoned programmers to grok, might<br>
>>>>> be a bit ambitious for these young learners.<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>> I'm speaking in particular about the model that emerges when you<br>
>>>>> isolate processes. It changes everything: your approach to building<br>
>>>>> software (move from state oriented to activity oriented), error<br>
>>>>> handling (move from defensive measures to assertive/let-it-crash),<br>
>>>>> program structure (from monolith to system), and so on. The benefits<br>
>>>>> of this shift are hard to get across, in my experience anyway. I wish<br>
>>>>> it wasn't, or I wish I was better at communicating.<br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>>><br>
>>>> I'm with the folks who suggest that this group has fewer<br>
>>>> pre-conceptions to unlearn.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> It strikes me that the actor model is far more natural for certain<br>
>>>> classes of problems - network code, simulation, and gaming come to mind.<br>
>>>> It's simply conceptually easier to think in terms of LOTS of independent<br>
>>>> processes.<br>
>>>><br>
>>>> Miles Fidelman<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>> --<br>
>>>> In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.<br>
>>>> In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra<br>
>>>><br>
>>>><br>
>>>> _______________________________________________<br>
>>>> erlang-questions mailing list<br>
>>>> <a href="mailto:erlang-questions@erlang.org" target="_blank">erlang-questions@erlang.org</a><br>
>>>> <a href="http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions" target="_blank">http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions</a><br>
>>>><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>>> _______________________________________________<br>
>>> erlang-questions mailing list<br>
>>> <a href="mailto:erlang-questions@erlang.org" target="_blank">erlang-questions@erlang.org</a><br>
>>> <a href="http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions" target="_blank">http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions</a><br>
>>><br>
>>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>><br>
>> * Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya<br>
>> <<a href="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/204a87f81a0d9764c1f3364f53e8facf.png" target="_blank">http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/204a87f81a0d9764c1f3364f53e8facf.png</a>> That<br>
>> tall bald Indian guy..*<br>
>> * Google+ <<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/108074935470209044442/posts" target="_blank">https://plus.google.com/u/0/108074935470209044442/posts</a>><br>
>> | Blog <<a href="http://dieswaytoofast.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://dieswaytoofast.blogspot.com/</a>> | Twitter<br>
>> <<a href="https://twitter.com/dieswaytoofast" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/dieswaytoofast</a>> | LinkedIn<br>
>> <<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/dieswaytoofast" target="_blank">http://www.linkedin.com/in/dieswaytoofast</a>> *<br>
>><br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
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>> <a href="http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions" target="_blank">http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Mark Nijhof<br>
> t: @MarkNijhof <<a href="https://twitter.com/MarkNijhof" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MarkNijhof</a>><br>
> s: marknijhof<br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
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> <a href="http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions" target="_blank">http://erlang.org/mailman/listinfo/erlang-questions</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> "Installing applications can lead to corruption over time. Applications<br>
> gradually write over each other's libraries, partial upgrades occur, user<br>
> and system errors happen, and minute changes may be unnoticeable and<br>
> difficult to fix"<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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><br>
><br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Mark Nijhof<br><div><div>t: <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkNijhof" target="_blank">@MarkNijhof</a><br>s: marknijhof</div></div>
<div><br></div></div>
</div>