[throwawaycoder]

Because men would never have thought of creating a programming book for kids?

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aprog...

Or maybe because men can't draw as well as women?

Edit: probably I'll get downvoted for this so I'll just add that I think it's good this book is being made. Can't hurt to try different things to get kids interested. Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary.

[supersystem]

"Just not sure why the gender comment was necessary."

I said nothing about gender nor did I intend to, that was your assumption.

[Confusion]

Don't dodge criticism by retroactively changing the meaning of what you said. We all know damned well the major lack of diversity in programming is the lack of women.

Rather affirm that this is exactly part of what you were saying [1]. I'll one-up you: indeed, the chance of a male writing such a book is much smaller than the chance of a female writing such a book. Acting as if gender wouldn't influence choice of content and style is ridiculous.

And before anyone jumps on my back: I'm telling it like it is, which implies nothing about how I think that it should be.

[1] Why would 'diversity' be a good thing, if not for the fact that it results in, you know, more diversity? Differences in the input result in differences in the output.

[throwawaycoder]

"I'll one-up you: indeed, the chance of a male writing such a book is much smaller than the chance of a female writing such a book. Acting as if gender wouldn't influence choice of content and style is ridiculous."

So what aspects of it are female specific? Because women would be more likely to worry about educating children?

Seriously, answer the question instead of relying on prejudice, please.

I'd consent that female heroines might be more likely for female authors (didn't check, though), although in this case I suspect gender of author's children might be more important.

Edit: I have to go further - sorry, but you made me think about it. Of course the odds of a woman writing such a book are significantly smaller, simply because there are much fewer female programmers than male programmers.

[Confusion]

  Of course the odds of a woman writing such a book are 
  significantly smaller, simply because there are much fewer 
  female programmers than male programmers.

If you are talking about P(book written by female|book written by programmer). I was talking about P(such a book written by female|such a book written by programmer).

Which implies I assume P(female programmer writing such a book) / P(male programmer writing such a book) > P(male programmer writing book) / P(female programmer writing book). Also P(female programmer writing such a book|female programmer writing book) > P(male programmer writing such a book|male programmer writing book)

  So what aspects of it are female specific?

None. There are aspects more likely to originate from a female. As you say: female heroine. As you say: caring about education of children. You only need to look at the gender ratio in primary school teachers to affirm the latter.

[emiliobumachar]

Please do tell what you intended to mean by diversity in this context.

[shangxiao]

You implied it though

[jorgem]

No, I think you inferred it.

[rimantas]

So how do you interpret "diversity" then? That we need more kids in industry?

[jorgem]

Diversity could be: Income, Country of Origin, Sex, Sexual preference, Ethnicity... much more. It's a broad term.

[shangxiao]

Of course. However in IT discussions, especially on HN, what do you think it gets interpreted as?

[throwawaycoder]

What did you mean then, by "this is a good example why" - in what way is it a good example, what does it show about diversity?

[run4_too]

No, because the audience is clearly unsatisfied with only having those options.

What a bigoted comment. OP is praising diversity, and you are suggesting what, exactly? That there isn't an issue if everyone in a field approaches a problem in the exact same way? Are you really that small minded?

[throwawaycoder]

I did not reply to the "diversity is good" comment, but to the "this is a good example why diversity is good" comment. This seems to imply to me that such a book wouldn't be made by men, which seems rather prejudiced to me. I only object to the implied prejudice.

Your comment also sounds as if you think women would approach the issue in a completely different way than men, so please explain in which way?

[deadfall]

I want to address one of the books in the Amazon link. 3D game programming FOR KIDS looks overwhelming even to me. The kid me would have looked a few pages and fell right asleep. I understand it isn't for the same age range as Linda's book but wow. This is the problem getting kids to stick with it. My manager talks about his kids just not sticking with programming. They go to classes and want to build things, but it is easier to play games than actually build them. Which is more valuable skill? Looking at the mockup images of Linda's book, it seems to bring kids real life scenarios with a programming ideology which is fantastic.

[throwawaycoder]

I only did a search for "programming book for kids" on Amazon. Maybe they all suck, maybe not. Maybe Linda's book will suck, too. I just want to know why a programming book written by a woman is presumed to be superior to programming books written by men. And I have nothing against programming books written by women - my question is why enter the gender angle.

Maybe men would be less likely to use a female protagonist, I haven't sampled the books content. Maybe not. So it's maybe nice to have a programming book with a female protagonist, but I doubt it is something only women would think of.

In fact I suppose if a man who has a daughter were to write such a book, he would be quite likely to make the protagonist female, too.

Btw. the Python books for kids looks as if there are also stories in it, and I saw at least one rave review from an 8 year old: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Kids-Playful-Introduction-Progr...

Maybe Alice in Wonderland would work, too?

[jabelk]

I think there's something to be said for having a female author to look up to, for young girls (and boys) in terms of dispelling programming stereotypes at a young age. And no, I don't think a man could accomplish the same thing. As far as the actual content though, no argument.

[shangxiao]

Everyone is equal except we're not