On 02/06/2014 12:13 AM, Alan Gauld wrote:
On 05/02/14 18:34, Colin Chinsammy wrote:
I am considering purchasing the Acer c720 chromebook for my 13yo to
begin learning Python for Kids. Obviously I am on a budget.
I wouldn't consider a Chromebpook for anyone learning programming.
They are fine for folks who are happy to do everything "in the cloud" but
programming is not one of the things that works well there IMHO.
A netbook or basic laptop is a little more expensive but
much more powerful and flexible. It doesn't need to be state
of the art or even a latest generation model but the ability
to install and run programs locally is crucial.
I don't know about prices in the US but the difference in
price between a Chromebook and a basic laptop/netbook in
the UK is less than 25%. The Chromebook may look sexier
but it's far less useful to a wannabe programmer.
I second Alan's advice. For programming, especially learning, you don't need
power (memory including, CPU freq, etc). In fact, you need very very few. (On
the other hand, as user, *running* some rare progs may require much power.)
I would put the price in the screen: as programmers, people spend all their time
*reading*, this for very long periods of time. We read our code, other people's
code (much more than you'd think), tutorials, docs, articles... This, in editors
or IDE's, web browsers, email readers, terminals... We need comfort. Display
quality. And also space to have several windows open constantly (possibly
overlapping).
[I'd recommend at least 21''. And rather 16/10 or even 4/3 if you can find one,
than hypish 16/9 which are only good for pirating films ;-). What we miss in
programming and reading is rather vertical space; we would be better at
embracing more at once vertically; we're constantly moving up & down, because
screens are wide and not high.]
d
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