[zachgalant]

She needs to check out http://codehs.com (disclosure: I'm a cofounder).

We make it really easy and accessible for people to get started even without having a background.

We've had students aged 9 (http://blog.codehs.com/post/39684965497/9-years-old-and-codi...)

to 85 (http://blog.codehs.com/post/37288742720/im-85-and-i-learned-...)

We focus on teaching the fundamentals of thinking like a programmer, so even though the site is based in JavaScript, she'll be able to apply her knowledge towards matlab.

Also, it's really fun, and if she continues, she will learn to make a mobile game or two along the way.

You can email me at [e-mail] if you or she have any questions. Or just sign up for the free trial to check it out.

We give personal feedback to all of our students on all the code they submit, so they're sure to improve and not only write functional code, but code with good style.

[DrorY]

Do you teach Matlab specifically? This can be an excellent B'day gift.

[zachgalant]

no, we don't teach matlab. maybe we'll add that in the future.

for now, I think she'd just get a lot out of learning some of the fundamentals of programming rather than diving straight into matlab.

having a grasp of some of the basics will only help her understanding of matlab, and I'd even recommend trying to work on it concurrently.

If she gets started on CodeHS, I guarantee she'll learn a lot and have fun in the process.

[DrorY]

What would be the closet thing to Matlab she could learn in codehs? (Similar syntax similar core concepts)

Do you have any plans of adding Matlab anytime soon?

[zachgalant]

No plans for matlab just yet, but it's on our longer term todo list.

She'd learn these topics:

* Function decomposition

* programming style

* good problem decomposition

* parameters and return values

* control structures (for, while, if)

* Variables and scoping

* boolean logic

* data structures: arrays, maps, grids, dictionaries