I started with the C64 and BASIC like Dave. I remember spending hours trying to get that little black dot to bounce across the screen...and I was typing straight from the manual! Ah, the good ol' days. In fact, I still have my C64 and the colossal 5/14" floppy drive.
As for starting off, I agree with Chris (and Dave) regarding Python or Ruby. Ruby in particular would allow kids to see quick results to their efforts and hopefully encourage them to dig deeper into the foundations of good programming. Keith On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Dave Fancella <[email protected]>wrote: > > Eek, I don't really have a good answer, because I started on the > Commodore 64, where you had to know a little BASIC to do anything. I > was probably 9 or 10 when I wrote my first actual game, but I'd done a > fair amount of keyboard graphics animations by then (and also hacked > on a few games we already had. I got kicked out of the school library > for fixing a bug in Oregon Trail by a luddite librarian). Moved on to > AmigaBasic, later BlitzBasic, taught myself C in high school (C++ was > still a rising force at the time, considered too big for PCs), and > formally studied Pascal. (If it's not obvious, I've moved on quite a > bit since then, but you can look at my resume to see what's happened > since then) > > I think that nowadays I'd try to direct a kid to python. It has the > same qualities that made commodore basic relatively easy to pick up as > a kid and also enforces a certain amount of "good coding strategies". > It's on my list to provide my own kids with a computer that has easy > access to python to see if they take to it. ;) > > In any case, there is an open source version of the old turtle game > that I never played (Logo?) that I'd be willing to spring on my kids. > There's also a tank battle game that lets you use any language that > I'd also be happy to spring on my kids (it runs your program as a > separate process and connects pipes to stdin/stdout, it's called > realtimebattles or something like that. I'd be interested in someone > to play that with myself whenever I have time for such gratuitous > programming :) ). > > Visit my website! > http://www.davefancella.com > > Also, I'm currently looking for a job. So while you're at my website, > look at my resume! > http://www.davefancella.com/resume/dave.html > > > > On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Ryan Joy <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I posed the following question to Twitter earlier and thought I'd > > probably get some great responses from here as well: > > > > "Did you start tinkering w/ programming as a child? If so, how? > > Which programs? What are the best options for aspiring children > > today?" > > http://twitter.com/atxryan/status/1389232099 > > > > Personally, I first tinkered with BASIC programs in MS DOS when I was > > in middle school and then got into C++ in junior high. > > > > You? > > > > - RYAN JOY > > http://twitter.com/atxryan > > > > > > > > > > > -- Keith Aric Hall http://www.keitharichall.com/ twitter: keitharichall --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
