Bought a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B... Now what?

[Wayne]

Good afternoon all...

I've got a 23-year-old stepdaughter who has recently expressed an interest in learning to program. At least she's expressed an interest in the ideal of learning to program. It remains to be seen whether or not this is an actual thing, or just a stray thought.

To that end, and trying to be supportive, I just bought a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B kit (case, PS, memory card, etc) off of Amazon, thinking it might be the easiest, cheapest, and most fun way to pique her interest...

My thought is to buy the kit and when she gets here next week, work with her to get it put together and online (displaying through the TV???) then take Lisa and her down to the Book Store for both coffee, and a couple of books, such as a "getting started" guide, along with what I'm calling a "recipe book" full of Raspberry Pi project ideas...

I'd be just fine keeping the Pi and all that if it proves that she's not interested, but I thought I'd ask... Am I on the right path? I see a couple of you have bought them, but what did you do with them, etc?

Thanks,

Wayne

 

[redrumloa]

Good afternoon all...

I've got a 23-year-old stepdaughter who has recently expressed an interest in learning to program. At least she's expressed an interest in the ideal of learning to program. It remains to be seen whether or not this is an actual thing, or just a stray thought.

To that end, and trying to be supportive, I just bought a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B kit (case, PS, memory card, etc) off of Amazon, thinking it might be the easiest, cheapest, and most fun way to pique her interest...

My thought is to buy the kit and when she gets here next week, work with her to get it put together and online (displaying through the TV???) then take Lisa and her down to the Book Store for both coffee, and a couple of books, such as a "getting started" guide, along with what I'm calling a "recipe book" full of Raspberry Pi project ideas...

I'd be just fine keeping the Pi and all that if it proves that she's not interested, but I thought I'd ask... Am I on the right path? I see a couple of you have bought them, but what did you do with them, etc?

Thanks,

Wayne

Key out Kano Project. It's geared more for kids, but may be a good starting point.

-Edit-
Main link HERE.

 

[Wayne]

Key out Kano Project. It's geared more for kids, but may be a good starting point.

-Edit-
Main link HERE.

Thanks... I wish I had seen that first, as I would have appreciated the battery and 10.1" display, but maybe not the $250 price tag. Perhaps if Olivia takes the $60 Pi kit home with her, I might consider one just for myself...

Wayne

 

[redrumloa]

Thanks... I wish I had seen that first, as I would have appreciated the battery and 10.1" display, but maybe not the $250 price tag. Perhaps if Olivia takes the $60 Pi kit home with her, I might consider one just for myself...

Wayne

I believe the software learning tools are free open source downloads.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Good afternoon all...

I've got a 23-year-old stepdaughter who has recently expressed an interest in learning to program. At least she's expressed an interest in the ideal of learning to program. It remains to be seen whether or not this is an actual thing, or just a stray thought.

Aye - there's the rub.
And further to that, there's the question of what kind of "programming" she means. The pi is a pretty nice bit of very cheap and capable kit, but it comes down to what she thinks she means by "programming".
Obviously there are general principles and patterns that are widely applicable, but there are also some very domain specific bits of knowledge.

Python is pretty nice for doing work in out of the box. Pretty powerful libraries. Actually, for doing stuff out of the box in a straightforward to start way I liked Rebol, except it didn't always seem to work as advertised and it was kind of LISPy in ways I didn't quite get. OTOH, javascript (ECMA script) is interesting and not nearly as crap as I used to think it - and if you want to get to drawing then the canvas is pretty accessible even though you have to do some infrastructure work in HTML (which is annoying if you just want to get started programming, but OK if you intend to learn web stuff generally).

I haven't used the pi to drive hardware projects but it has plenty of GPIO and a python library to help out.

You can even go C/C++ though the compile times are longish for bigger code - and java if you really feel the need.

Logo? Why not?

But programming is a pretty broad field of endeavour these days. Does she want to learn to program for her own amusement, because she likes puzzles, or does she have things she needs a computer to do that no-one is providing a solution for, or does she want to develop apps or games or ...

Pis a good platform for a lot of that stuff with minimum investment and can be re-purposed if she gets tired of it. Not much to lose in going the pi route. Still, "what sorts of things would you like to do with programming?" is a good starter question. I think it would influence the language and toolset you would want to get started with.

 

[Wayne]

It figures that the day AFTER I buy the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, they come out with a Model B+ which is 200mhz faster, and 3x faster Wireless for the same price...

 

[Wayne]

@Fluffy

She has no idea what "programming" means at this point. She's 23 and just trying to find something that both interests her, and that she can build a career on. My thought for grabbing the Pi is that I stumbled across a book at the local BAM last week which was essentially a great walkthrough guide which walked you through building a Pi, getting it connected, talking about what all the ports were, then introduced the reader to BASIC, Javascript, and other languages like Python if she ever got to that point.

I have no doubt that she will look at it, and might make a passing attempt at feigning interest, but if it doesn't last, hey, I've got a Pi.. If it does, I'll buy a new B+ Pi to have something to tinker with.

My problem -- as I've often lamented here -- is that I have been in computers and Internet for SOOOO long (30+ years) that I've lost interest in most of it. Indeed, I'd rather be learning either woodworking or how to build/service motorcycles. Alas, until I get a chance to win the lottery, I can't spare the time, energy, or money to do either... Maybe tinkering with a Pi and trying to get her enthralled with them will remind me what I used to love about computers all those years ago...

Wayne

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

@Fluffy

She has no idea what "programming" means at this point. She's 23 and just trying to find something that both interests her, and that she can build a career on.

Well, no point in shelling out too much for kit on such nebulous whims. Programming for programming's sake is pretty esoteric like maths for maths. Often it's better if they have an idea of what they want to get done and then they have a reason to learn the skills that they can use to make it happen.

 

[Wayne]

Well, no point in shelling out too much for kit on such nebulous whims. Programming for programming's sake is pretty esoteric like maths for maths. Often it's better if they have an idea of what they want to get done and then they have a reason to learn the skills that they can use to make it happen.

If she wants to keep and move forward with it, great. If I ended up with it my idea is to build one of those “Magic mirrors” with it. Put the stuff and a monitor behind a one way mirror to display news, weather, etc... looked like a fun project