I started things with an Apple IIe using BASIC. At first starting wtih the graphical output for the quick and easy satisfaction, but moving on to games eventually. Junior High/ High School i migrated to PASCAL and C and now the list is pretty long.
If i was trying to get kids involved today, i would try Flash ActionScript if available, otherwise for a free solution Ruby is probably the way to go. Also, I wouldn't settle for just software. I'd pick them up a breadboard and an Arduino and get to work. Great tool for teaching them how to play with Hardware. Bert On Mar 25, 2009, at 1:54 PM, Keith Aric Hall wrote: > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
