Hello guys and girls. I am very impressed of Nim's concepts and philosophies, and the implementation. I decided to start writing a free and open book for Introduction to Computer Science using Nim. I have already started, but it might be available in one or two years at most.
My ears is open for any suggestion, advise, and comments.
etc
I would be interested in a book like this i already do have nim in action. But i would probably love a book that focuses on the the technological aspect of nim and computer science, at the same time.
When i started off in nim i was very frustrated because i could not grasp OOP at first in c++ or java, but procedural programming made sense so i gravitated toward nim. However i finally read the one good book i have on c++ that starts with c programming, that is steven prata's c++ primer plus and then that helped me understand the technology behind nim.
So maybe my only advice would be focus on OOP in nim too, at a later part in the book? I dunno it seems an advanced concept for c++ and programmers in general at first.
And i would love some more Knowledge about how to do networking in any language so i would be interested in this book probably for that reason alone!
The reasons of introduction:
You might say writing such book can be a very difficult task, but no. It is easy for me, because I am patient 👍.
I am very happy to hear about this project. :D
I'm looking forward to seeing the first drafts, starting with a basic outline. Perhaps this can be a collaborative effort in something like a wiki. "Release early, release often."
I've long advocated Python as the best language for introductory programming. Not many people agreed with me in the past, but Python is now the most popular teaching language (even at the top universities).
Perhaps Nim is the ideal second language, which would introduce typing, walk through lots of real-world examples that stick to a limited feature set, and only then gradually introduce all the more complex features.
I emphasize gradually - Nim can be a very easy language if you stick to simple things (Python + types) and not look too deeply under the hood. One can create great things in Nim without learning the more complex features (and some Python programmers just don't have the bandwidth / IQ / whatever to learn them). Introducing a beginner to all of Nim's features at once (perhaps even in one year) is very scary...
Also, one thing that I think Nim needs is good stdlib equivalency appendices for Python, PHP, etc. Where there's no equivalent (ex is_writable) - that's a call for someone to write a module that includes this feature, and perhaps have it considered for Nim's stdlib.
From what I understand, MEAP is a more restrictive process, where people who pre-order (pay for) a restrictively-licensed book get early access.
There's nothing wrong with writing a book for profit and not giving it away for nothing, but then the terms "free and open book" don't apply.
Think of it as a book under CC BY license.
There is no buy-able beginner book available beside Dom's "Nim in Action", but there are many good tutorial-like beginner docs available now, see