alt Hacker NewsThink about how far they've come if you get them to have these "misconceived" ideas!
They would understand code and data are in the same place, that all flow control effectively boils down to a jump, and they have a _more_ accurate picture of the inside of a machine than anyone starting out with Python or JavaScript could hope for.
Having spent 25 years to get to assembler, I wish I'd started it sooner. It's truly a lovely way to look at the machine. I'll definitely be teaching my kids how to program in assembly first (probably x86-16 using DOS as a program launcher)
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> and they have a _more_ accurate picture of the inside of a machine than anyone starting out with Python or JavaScript could hope for.
Frankly, a more accurate picture than those starting in C have, too.
They have to want to understand any of those things first.
Be very careful that you're not going to just kill enthusiasm for programming as an activity entirely with this approach.
I see this happen a lot (I did a lot of robotics/programming mentoring), and then adults wonder why their kids don't like any of the stuff they like - and the reason is that the adult was really a dick about making them learn the things the adult liked, and ignored most of the fun aspects of the activity, or the wishes of the kid.