Learning to program without a computer

Question

I have a friend in prison who wants to learn programming.

He's got no access to a computer so I was wondering if people could recommend books that would be a good introduction to programming without requiring a computer.

Obviously he's going to need to keep learning once he gets out, and has access to a computer, but how should he get started now (he's got lots of free time to read obviously). Based on his goals I think Ruby or Javascript/HTML5 might be good paths for him to start down, but really for now it's most important to explain the ideas. Even if it's all pseudo code.

These need to be physical publications, paperbacks are preferred, and consider that he's got limited shelf space so large books could be a problem.

Answer 1

If your friend is interested in programming, suggest him to work on algorithms first!

Get some Topcoder puzzles, algorithm tutorials and coding contest problems printed out for him.

Give him an engrossing puzzle, I bet he'll forget to eat!

I would strongly recommend against giving him HTML5 books as that would frustrate him for not having access to a computer. Do not encourage him to learn front-end technologies.

Answer 2

I spent most of my life as a mathematician and did not start writing software until after college. Learning to program in its simplest form is just a logical and procedural instruction or thought process.

That being said, books on mathematics paired with some language agnostic books, such as The Pragmatic Programmer, will be a great foundation for a fledgling programmer. Spending time on developing a mathematical foundation, in my opinion, is more important than mindless repetition. This will also help develop some level of abstraction, which is another important aspect in programming.

Programming languages themselves are just a tool and syntax is just syntax, the process itself is much more crucial for writing good solid code.

Answer 3

People were using lambda calculus before the advent of computers. Teach him the pure functional subset of LISP and set him problems like writing the factorial and Fibonacci functions before moving onto list manipulation functions.

It's possible to teach computer science without using computers as demonstrated here: http://csunplugged.org/

Answer 4

You could have him write programs and send them to you via letters which you then transcribe and run. Thus a language like Scheme would be useful since he can write out a mountain of Scheme code, have you test it and send him the results. It would be slow but it would work as a testbed.

As others have mentioned, mathematics is important and I'd recommend he take the time to become good at math. Obviously he won't be able to use the hottest or latest frameworks or anything like that but he should be able to learn to code just fine provided he has enough patience to wait for the results and you've enough interest in doing such a thing.

Answer 5

Some ideas:

Read Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. Its 400 pages walk the reader from binary codes, through logic gates, and up to assembly and ALGOL-like languages.

Would they allow a programmable calculator like the TI-83+? Or an old PalmOS device? It could be loaded with a FORTH, Lisp, BASIC, or Lua interpreter.

The Great Logo Adventure is written for kids, but Logo is so dirt-simple to learn that the book is really readable.

For older kids (high school, college), try Computer Science Logo Style. There are three volumes altogether.

Answer 6

I'm going to recommend old school BASIC and a notebook. The nice thing about basic is that it can be "executed" by a person much easier than other languages. Tell him the trick of skipping lines while writing so he has space if he needs to add anything. If you want to be a really good friend then take his notebook home once a week and run what he wrote.

I haven't done BASIC in years and so I can't recommend a book, but I'm sure someone can. Just make sure you get a classic book without all the Visual stuff.

Answer 7

The biggest problem someone completely new to programming will face in trying to learn how to program without a computer is the lack of positive reinforcement to hold their interest and draw them into the field.

A non-programmer hasn't experienced the joy of seeing their self-authored code do something novel that they have complete control over. They won't experience the joy of seeing a program they've worked long and hard on come to life the first time it runs. They won't be able to experiment and tinker with their program and see the changes immediately in their program output.

An experienced programmer may be able to run through code in their head and appreciate the elegant design of a piece of code without ever having executed it on a computer, but I think someone completely new to the field would have a really hard time doing this. They may not even be able to get into the programming mindset or understanding the abstract concepts without seeing a sample program in action.

So the biggest obstacle for your friend would be sticking with programming long enough to pick up the fundamentals and actually get to the point where programming becomes really fun and exciting (and even addicting) because of all the possibilities it opens up. At least with a computer, there's the excitement of seeing newly discovered commands in action for the first time.

I would highly recommend he try to transfer to a prison where they do have a computer lab, or at least see if he can get a programmable graphing calculator. You can actually do quite a bit of programming on many of them, and they also have clear models that might conform to the regulations of certain prisons.

Answer 8

If he can genuinely say that his interest in learning this is part of rehabilitating himself to become a better and productive member of society, then my question is why doesn't he have a computer? To learn programming, he doesn't need an expensive computer, or even an Internet connection.

Some possible reasons spring to mind:

1. He has not asked the prison authorities to help him with this
2. He is incarcerated in a tyrannical dictatorship

Answer 9

well i am absolutely certain that i would be a better programmer if, more often, i would excercise the discipline to shut off my Mac and get a pencil and paper instead.

Another fan of the pencil-and-paper approach to learning computer science, the great Edsger Dijkstra, whom i don't believe ever served time in prison. This well-known preference of his was not of course an exclusive preference, rather he just believed that problem solving should begin with more basic tools of cognition before moving to the computer, to wit:

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

Given the era in which he lived and worked (early 1950's until his death in 2002), clearly he didn't have ad libitum access to a computer for at least the first couple of decades of his professional career. Yet from the early 1990's until his death, he had a desktop Mac in his office at the University of Texas, though apparently he used it only to surf the web and check his email--for hard core hacking, Prof. Dijkstra continued to use a fountain pen.

Keep in mind that this conviction wasn't that of an academic mathematician, rather Dijkstra was in fact a programmer. That's certainly how he saw himself--e.g., his acceptance speech for the 1972 Turing Award was titled, The Humble Programmer, likewise, his first job came with the title "programmer", which apparently made him the first one ever in the Netherlands. When he listed this title on his marriage license application five years later, the authorities rejected his application because of that--no such profession, according to the Dutch authorities.

Answer 10

There is a reason it is called "Computer Programming".

For someone who wants to learn programming, a computer is not needed, but is an extremely important tool IMHO. That does not mean you cannot do it. To program you need to take a few different steps:

• Computer Science: Have him learn some basic computer science. Nothing too in depth, just the very, very basics of what code does and how it works with the computer.
• Teach him about the power of the Computer and the Code. Tell him about the potential, and have him realize the possibilities are endless.
• Get down to business. Teach him a language with a simple syntax such as Python or Ruby. Have him code in a notebook, and have him indent, space, etc. while writing code.

Book Ideas:

• Learning Python
• Learning Ruby
• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Hope this helps! BTW, I would read all of the books!

UPDATE: Make sure he get's a jump start from a person, whether it's you or somebody else. It would only take 30 minutes to get started if your focused. Then he can progress by himself.

Answer 11

I would say "The little Schemer" but Its not going to get you very far. How much math background does he have? IF he is reasonably happy with math he could try Structure and Interpretation of Computer programs.

Anything like HTML5 will be way to complex to understand without practicing it.

Answer 12

syntax of language can only be appreciated on computer, thats why we programmers spend more time in debugging @ start....

Anyways,languages are just a tools of expressing the thought that we wish to work out, so without a computer leaning languages is totally waste of time

ask him to work on the basics, algorithms if he is to much interested in programming

Answer 13

I started coding in Uganda in 1988. Back then the adults were using a terminal and time sharing off a server in Kenya! We had a server in our post office as huge as a 4 X 6 room and another in our central bank. I was not allowed to even THINK of them (13yr old trouble maker).

In 1992 an uncle from Canada sent over an IBM thinkpad and I downloaded Turbo C from AOL (isn't that what the internet was called?). Anyway cause my elder brother LOVE(D/S) games It became a timeshare type situation.

I learned to code by writing my code on a piece of paper and waiting patiently for 30mins (while my bro had a snack) to type in the code, save to floppy and press F5. If I was REALLY lucky, there was even time to not only place a break point, but to also troubleshoot the code till it worked. When I got to university, the student to pc ratio was 8:1 so while in the computer labs my ability to write decent code on paper really came in handy.

Coding on paper taught me one vital lesson. How to plan properly, visualise, psuedo code and implement. To this date, I still go 1 to 2 days without ever hitting F5 because I have reduced coding more to planning and typing.

The book I learned from was "C by Example" by an Indian (Asian) gentleman called Kalicharan.

Answer 14

While it's not a recent book, Code Complete by Steve McConnell would give him a good feel for the fundamentals, including both the nuts and bolts of coding and testing and a sense of the bigger picture of SDLC.

Answer 15

I learned to program in BASIC without a computer (initially) using this book: Basic Computer Games. It has listings of computer games to type in, along with one or more sample "runs" of each game. I followed each sample run along its execution path, and thereby worked out the fundamentals of how BASIC worked.

I would recommend not dwelling too long on BASIC though, since it only encourages bad habits that will need to be shaken off later. So the next thing to move onto would be something like this: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python.

Answer 16

There are a few solutions I think:

1. Choose a programming language which is easy to learn on paper. Personally I learned most of what I know of Haskell by simply reading "Haskell - The Craft of Functional Programming" while lying in bed. There's absolutely no reason you need a computer when just starting out in programming. Learning algorithmics and writing small programs can be done perfectly with pen and paper. Start with a simple book on a programming language, and after that read books on algorithms.
2. Learn formal thinking. In university one of our first courses was formally proving correct small procedural programs, all on paper. Though you will never actually use this, this formal way of thinking about programmers will help you become a better programmer.
3. Read books on computer architecture. Without understanding how computers work you can never fully understand programming. This can be done by reading book after book, and it is not necessary to keep them all. You could for instance read the books by Tanenbaum.

Lastly, don't let your friend get discouraged by not having a computer. In my university it's called Computing Science instead of Computer Science for a good reason. You can most certainly learn (the basics of) programming without computer. Good luck to your friend!

Answer 17

I think that the question itself is inaccurate, and most of the answers following. I loved the

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

I think people don't realize that Computer Science predates computers, in fact, Computer Science (with a lot of closely related Math and Engineering, these three fields overlap a bit) created that's how technology works. Why is that revenant? Simply because your friend shouldn't be teaching himself "programming", he should be studying Computer Science. He he learned Computer Science first, and while he lacked a computer anyways, he would be much better served in the future, learning any language (they change often, and that has to do with how languages become cumbersome and bloated as they have to expand while maintaining they existing grammar and compatibility). And the nice thing about it is that it can be done without a computer and has been done, and will continue to be done without one.

I will list a few of the most important areas, Discrete Math, Computability, Logic, Algorithms, the Study of Programming Languages, and Systems. With these tools at your disposal designing and implementing well-written, efficient, and correct code becomes much easier. The only thing missing would be the specific syntax of a specific language, but with programming languages you will understand how programming languages work as a whole and filling in the specifics of a language is just a matter of learning how it does things. That is my advice, I hope it is received; Computer Science, not programming is the way to go (even if you do have access to a computer). And I can give specific book names, of ones I used I my studies if that is required.

Answer 18

He cant learn programming without a computer. Not fully anyway.

While reading a book on Algorithms and another on a concrete language such as LISP will help later on down the line when he has a PC, there really isn't any comparison to actually writing the code yourself, debugging it and seeing the output.

Possibly he could put in a request for a basic pc with no internet access or the use of a public PC.

Answer 19

Assuming acquiring an old, non-internet connected computer is out of the question: A little bit left field, but I'd recommend getting him a copy of The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. It might not be directly helpful for learning programming, but several of the puzzles in the book require "algorithmic thinking" to solve, and one of the characters is imprisoned in a castle and has to use Turing machines to escape. Thinking about about some of the problems in the book are as likely to be helpful for understanding how programs and algorithms work as anything else you could do without an actual computer.

Answer 20

He definitely can learn programming without a computer, but this period must be not too long. Learning programming totally does not mean you have to sit in front of a computer all the time, especially when he is just starting.

Before he can actually write code in a computer, it'd better to make himself to be familiar with several basic things such as how computer/compiler/Internet/web and browser works. He must also learn at least at basic level about popular algorithms, and object oriented concepts.

I did started myself learning programming about 15 years ago without any computer, it was too expensive and my parents simply couldn't afford it. I almost read and remembered by heart all content of my first programming book, it was a beginer's Pascal book.

Answer 21

he can't learn programming but he can surely work on the theoretical part though. try to give some architetural, design, principles and all that stuff that. When he comes out it will be a lot easier.

Answer 22

There are (programming) books that are more readable and those that are not. What I remember from my childhood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_%2B_Data_Structures_%3D_Programs and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language were finely readable offline. I would think that from the modern ones, Kent Beck's XP:Explained and TDD books could be as well.