John Resig’s thoughts on Javascript as a First Language

John Resig posted on his site today, Javascript as a First Language.

His thoughts on why Javascript is a good fundamental programming language are interesting.  This is in reference to using it at Khan Academy to introduce computer programming.  For those who don’t know, Khan Academy is an amazing tool (Bill Gates is a fan of Khan Academy’s approach) for educating students.  There are many examples of students learning at significantly increased rates.

Watch the video John Resig (of jQuery fame) posted, and my notes and thoughts are below.

I had a traditional Computer Science background.  My first computer language was Basic on the Apple IIGS (thanks Apple for including Basic on your computers).  I learned HTML on my own very early on (back when LYNX was the typical browser).  It is weird to think of Javascript as a first language.

Javascript is an excellent, although controversial, choice to teach introductory computer programming in.

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Tags: basic, Javascript, John resig, Khan Academy, LISP, LYNX, Scheme

Basic jQuery Tutorial: Modify CSS classes and attributes, Hover and Toggle example

This tutorial will cover:

• Modifying CSS attributes with jQuery
• Setting a class for a page element
• Removing a class from a page element
• Testing if a class exists
• A quick toggle click behavior example

The final example will use all of the other elements in a single exercise.

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Tags: anchor link, attribute, basic, CSS, css attributes, div id, exercise, hover, HTML, Javascript, jQuery, page element, toggle, Tutorial