As a programming (and general technology) learner and teacher, all
your suggestions ring true.
An observation: I've only ever learned a language because I needed to
or wanted to do something specific and using that programming language
was a means to that end.
I learned HTML when I was on a webpage building kick back in the 90s.
I learned CSS and SSI when I neededto support a website with a lot of
different pages.
I learned BASH because I needed to administer a few hundred Linux boxes.
I learned Java and Python and C because I needed to teach them to high
school kids.
I've never learned a language because I wanted to learn it.
I played a lot with GWBASIC and MBASIC as a child, my dad even got me
some tutorials to run through, but I never used it and it faded away.
I played through several JavaScript tutorials and books, but I was
having more fun with the cool stuff that I could make it do than
anything really web-related and forgot it all after I moved on.
Same goes for Visual C++ when I decided to learn "real" programming
after the short stint with JavaScript.
Having a goal to aim for with it or a consistent need to use it meant
I had consistent enough long-term exposure working with it that it
somehow stuck (at least the syntax and grammar, maybe not too much
vocabulary now that its been so long).
Sitting and working my way through tutorials because I wanted to "be
able to use X language" never really stuck
On the plus side, though, I went through so many computer languages
shallowly, that the fundamentals that are shared across them kept
getting hammered into my head and I probably gained a better general
understanding of computers than if I'd focused on any one language.
Good practice for teaching programming, I guess. ;-)
Take care!
Simón
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