davidbau.com

Learning to Program with CoffeeScript

Is CoffeeScript a good first programming language to learn?

Absolutely!

I have written a new tutorial for beginners to learn to program with CoffeeScript.

Like Python, CoffeeScript has a punctuation-light syntax that is easy to type so that beginners can get straight to the essential concepts instead of fiddling with semicolons and matching curly braces. And yet it is a real language used by pros, so you can learn the essential concepts that you will see in other languages: variables, algebraic expressions, control flow, functions, lists, objects, classes, closures, exceptions, and (if you use Iced) even continuations.

The big advantage of learning CoffeeScript over Python is that you can start right now in your browser, without installing anything! Although CoffeeScript doesn't have the same full-featured standard library that Python has, jQuery makes a fine standard library. To help beginners, I have put together jQuery, a turtle graphics plugin jQuery-turtle, and a syntax coloring editor on pencilcode.net.

The tutorial teaches you how to program in CoffeeScript by building a game of hangman from scratch. It takes a couple hours to learn enough programming to make hangman. You will learn about:

• Memory and naming
• Computer arithmetic
• Using functions
• Simple graphics
• How to make a program
• Input and output
• Loops and choices
• Delays and synchronization
• Connecting to the internet

At the end we will have a game we can play.

Here is the tutorial: Learning to Program with CoffeeScript. Posted by David at December 18, 2013 10:30 AM