Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-05-04 Thread Nehal
On Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 22:02 Joh-Tob Schäg  Hello Nehal,
> I've been doing some catching up on these videos.
> Mr. Alabhya Singh took quiet some time to explain this mathematical problem
> with the different approaches. I recall that in Germany when i was
> confronted with the same problem (apply + (range 1 N)), i was taught the
> Gauss approach
> (/ (* N (- N 1)) 2) directly.
> I was not consciously aware that
> (= (apply + (range 11 20)) (+ (apply + (range 1 10)) (* 10 10)))
> Nice trick.
>

Wonderful! Sessions shared here are first introduction to children of Lisp.
Currently these aren't the tricks they're doing. They're toying with Emacs
Scratch Buffer and simple symbolic expressions, trying to solve basic math
problems they see in day to day life.


That makes me recall an childhood incident where i came distressed from
> Kindergarden (I would have been between 5 and 7) when i realized i ran out
> of numbers to count.
>
> > My goal was to find the highest number i can count (looking back it's
> that
> > i run out of ways to say a number when i try to find the highest number i
> > can say):
> >
> > "one,two,tree,(annoyed pause) this goes till ten like that"
> > "eleven,twelve,(let's skip the small steps) next is twenty, then
> > thirty,forty,fifty, this goes to slow as well, i never finish that way,
> so
> > next is one hundred, so next is one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred
> > thousand, thousand thousand, (??) that sounds funny, so it must go on
> like
> > "thousand-thousand-thousand-..." and i now can say all the numbers"
> > It turned out it did not.
> > I found the next care taker and said "When i grow up i want make
> > thousand-thousand €"
> > He answered: "You mean like 2000€?"
> > I was shocked, 2000 was way smaller than i had in mind. "No like
> thousand,
> > ten-thousand, hundred thousand, thousand-thousand, ten-thousand-thousand"
> > He answered: "It is not thousand-thousand it is called a million"
> > It dawned on me that for some stupid reason people decided to call
> > thousand-thousand a million. Why would they want to do that it is way
> more
> > fun to say thousand-thousand-thousand than thousand-million?
> > By the time i was ready to ask the question the staff had left in a hurry





Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-28 Thread Joh-Tob Schäg
Hello Nehal,
I've been doing some catching up on these videos.
Mr. Alabhya Singh took quiet some time to explain this mathematical problem
with the different approaches. I recall that in Germany when i was
confronted with the same problem (apply + (range 1 N)), i was taught the
Gauss approach
(/ (* N (- N 1)) 2) directly.
I was not consciously aware that
(= (apply + (range 11 20)) (+ (apply + (range 1 10)) (* 10 10)))
Nice trick.
That makes me recall an childhood incident where i came distressed from
Kindergarden (I would have been between 5 and 7) when i realized i ran out
of numbers to count.

> My goal was to find the highest number i can count (looking back it's that
> i run out of ways to say a number when i try to find the highest number i
> can say):
>
> "one,two,tree,(annoyed pause) this goes till ten like that"
> "eleven,twelve,(let's skip the small steps) next is twenty, then
> thirty,forty,fifty, this goes to slow as well, i never finish that way, so
> next is one hundred, so next is one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred
> thousand, thousand thousand, (??) that sounds funny, so it must go on like
> "thousand-thousand-thousand-..." and i now can say all the numbers"
> It turned out it did not.
> I found the next care taker and said "When i grow up i want make
> thousand-thousand €"
> He answered: "You mean like 2000€?"
> I was shocked, 2000 was way smaller than i had in mind. "No like thousand,
> ten-thousand, hundred thousand, thousand-thousand, ten-thousand-thousand"
> He answered: "It is not thousand-thousand it is called a million"
> It dawned on me that for some stupid reason people decided to call
> thousand-thousand a million. Why would they want to do that it is way more
> fun to say thousand-thousand-thousand than thousand-million?
> By the time i was ready to ask the question the staff had left in a hurry

Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-28 Thread Nehal
Dear Mr Kashyap,

Thanks a lot for your encouraging words. It's wonderful that you could find
time to watch and appreciate our videos.

Will keep updating about latest in our Lisp exploration with kids.

Thanks
Nehal

-


On Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 20:00 C K Kashyap  This is very nice! I particularly liked how quickly the kids were catching
> onto the syntax rules - or rule rather :)
> I had tried to get my daughters interested - I think I'll try to preset it
> as a game and try again.
> Thanks for sharing the videos.
> Regards,
> Kashyap
>
> On Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 12:49 AM Alexander Burger 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Nehal,
>>
>> wow, thats impressing!
>>
>> > We have begun Lisp sessions here with kids. Many other kids joined.
>> Without
>> > explicitly telling about symbolic expressions they learned to traverse,
>> > understand, solve lisp as mathematical puzzles.
>> >
>> > The session was taken by my mentor and co-worker, Alabhya Singh, Alumnus
>> > IIT Kharagpur. Session is in Hindi but explanation on board can be
>> easily
>> > understood.
>>
>> These kids are amazing. I don't understand the words, but at one point I
>> believe
>> I even heard one kid speculating about infinity (well, not completely
>> correct as
>> (/ 10 10) would rather be 1 ;) ... at that age!
>>
>> Thanks for sharing this!!
>> ☺/ A!ex
>>
>> --
>> UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:picolisp@software-lab.de?subject=Unsubscribe
>>
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-28 Thread Nehal
Dear Mr Alexander,

Thanks for appreciating our efforts. This was all unplanned and
spontaneous. Infact we started to approach Lisp syntax with addition of
numbers from 1 to 100. So all kids were focused on numbers. Syntax was just
natural. The best thing was they enjoyed. And there was no fear of
programming. At the end of the session they were told that it was Lisp and
they can use Emacs Scratch Buffer for complex problems (they're already
using Org mode for drafting journals to send us mails).

Your response was forwarded to parents of these children. It was highly
encouraging for them, seeing it coming from the creator of PicoLisp
himself.

We'll keep the PicoLisp mailing list updated about further activities.

Thanks
Nehal

-


On Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 13:19 Alexander Burger  Dear Nehal,
>
> wow, thats impressing!
>
> > We have begun Lisp sessions here with kids. Many other kids joined.
> Without
> > explicitly telling about symbolic expressions they learned to traverse,
> > understand, solve lisp as mathematical puzzles.
> >
> > The session was taken by my mentor and co-worker, Alabhya Singh, Alumnus
> > IIT Kharagpur. Session is in Hindi but explanation on board can be easily
> > understood.
>
> These kids are amazing. I don't understand the words, but at one point I
> believe
> I even heard one kid speculating about infinity (well, not completely
> correct as
> (/ 10 10) would rather be 1 ;) ... at that age!
>
> Thanks for sharing this!!
> ☺/ A!ex
>
> --
> UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:picolisp@software-lab.de?subject=Unsubscribe
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-27 Thread C K Kashyap
This is very nice! I particularly liked how quickly the kids were catching
onto the syntax rules - or rule rather :)
I had tried to get my daughters interested - I think I'll try to preset it
as a game and try again.
Thanks for sharing the videos.
Regards,
Kashyap

On Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 12:49 AM Alexander Burger 
wrote:

> Dear Nehal,
>
> wow, thats impressing!
>
> > We have begun Lisp sessions here with kids. Many other kids joined.
> Without
> > explicitly telling about symbolic expressions they learned to traverse,
> > understand, solve lisp as mathematical puzzles.
> >
> > The session was taken by my mentor and co-worker, Alabhya Singh, Alumnus
> > IIT Kharagpur. Session is in Hindi but explanation on board can be easily
> > understood.
>
> These kids are amazing. I don't understand the words, but at one point I
> believe
> I even heard one kid speculating about infinity (well, not completely
> correct as
> (/ 10 10) would rather be 1 ;) ... at that age!
>
> Thanks for sharing this!!
> ☺/ A!ex
>
> --
> UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:picolisp@software-lab.de?subject=Unsubscribe
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-27 Thread Alexander Burger
Dear Nehal,

wow, thats impressing!

> We have begun Lisp sessions here with kids. Many other kids joined. Without
> explicitly telling about symbolic expressions they learned to traverse,
> understand, solve lisp as mathematical puzzles.
> 
> The session was taken by my mentor and co-worker, Alabhya Singh, Alumnus
> IIT Kharagpur. Session is in Hindi but explanation on board can be easily
> understood.

These kids are amazing. I don't understand the words, but at one point I believe
I even heard one kid speculating about infinity (well, not completely correct as
(/ 10 10) would rather be 1 ;) ... at that age!

Thanks for sharing this!!
☺/ A!ex

-- 
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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-26 Thread Nehal
Dear PicoLisp programmers,

We have begun Lisp sessions here with kids. Many other kids joined. Without
explicitly telling about symbolic expressions they learned to traverse,
understand, solve lisp as mathematical puzzles.

The session was taken by my mentor and co-worker, Alabhya Singh, Alumnus
IIT Kharagpur. Session is in Hindi but explanation on board can be easily
understood.

You'll find videos of this interesting exercise here (in sequence):
 1.
VID20190425_lisp_1.mp4
https://yadi.sk/i/KRSwiQGyt0FxNw
2.
VID20190425_lisp_2.mp4
https://yadi.sk/i/CrhU6naCuhfTtQ
 3.
VID20190425_lisp_3.mp4
https://yadi.sk/i/VL-GAkrgaQQRWQ
 4.
VID20190425_lisp_4.mp4
https://yadi.sk/i/PRSrjSiqV9iJ6A
 5.
VID20190425_lisp_5.mp4
https://yadi.sk/i/EAacZGLUc-0P6w

Enthusiasts may see.

Suggestions are welcome.

Thanks and regards,
Nehal Singhal

On Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:41 Christophe Gragnic  On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:18 AM  wrote:
> >
> > Too bad.  I'm curious now if there was a predecessor to Python as the
> mandated computer language.  If so, what was it?
>
> Hi,
> Say 5% of the high school teachers used only calculators for
> programming (yeah, Texas Instr Basic or Casio Basic),
> 5% used Scratch, 1% already used Python and the rest used Algobox:
> http://www.xm1math.net/algobox/
>
> It's not that we were asked to use this predecessor,
> but it was $free$ (teachers are not concerned about free (speach)
> software),
> had a great documentation and examples and was in French.
>
>
> chri
>
> --
> UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:picolisp@software-lab.de?subject=Unsubscribe
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-17 Thread Christophe Gragnic
On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:18 AM  wrote:
>
> Too bad.  I'm curious now if there was a predecessor to Python as the 
> mandated computer language.  If so, what was it?

Hi,
Say 5% of the high school teachers used only calculators for
programming (yeah, Texas Instr Basic or Casio Basic),
5% used Scratch, 1% already used Python and the rest used Algobox:
http://www.xm1math.net/algobox/

It's not that we were asked to use this predecessor,
but it was $free$ (teachers are not concerned about free (speach) software),
had a great documentation and examples and was in French.


chri

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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-16 Thread Nehal
Hello Christophe,

On 4/16/19, Christophe Gragnic  wrote:

>
>> However I am looking for something only based in PicoLisp.
>
> Indeed MicroAlg is not what you are looking for.
> But let me make some suggestions:
> 1) Don't underestimate the (natural) language barrier.
> Many of my students were glad the language was in French.
> But your students may be good enough at reading/writing English.

It should not indeed be tough to learn a bit of French for the sheer
fun of seeing your website. :)

> 2) Don't understimate the power of syntax highlighting
> (rainbow parens, delimiters and delimited sections, and keywords).
> You'll be happy to be able to debug a program in 10ms.
>
> 3) Don't underestimate the fun that kids can have in a playground.
> You want you students to work with a practical language, with real
> applications.
> This is very nice but may not be really needed at first.
> Toy programs with text display, with a turtle, with shapes to draw…
> could be enough.
>
> 4) Deployment is important too. Try to make it easy.
> Thank to Jon Kleiser I was able to make the snippets run in the
> browser too, which was a bliss.
>
> Have fun!

I am considering and exploring Emacs Lisp for kids. Let's see.



-- 
Warm Regards,
Nehal Singhal

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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-16 Thread rick
Hi Christophe!

> The project is now stopped because Python must now be used in high
> school in France.

Too bad.  I'm curious now if there was a predecessor to Python as the mandated 
computer language.  If so, what was it?

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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-16 Thread pd
Hi Christophe,  lot of thanks for your work it's awesome

On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 6:50 PM Christophe Gragnic <
christophegrag...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 11:20 AM pd  wrote:
> >
> > yes, that it is.  A very interesting project specially for education
>
> Thanks for your interest.
> The project is now stopped because Python must now be used in high
> school in France.
> If ever you are in a French speaking env and are interested in
> teaching I'd be glad to chat.
>

I'm very interested in MicroAlg, I remember I was tempted to translate it
to my own language when I first met but then initial momentum waned

It's sad to know government is establishing the programming language to
teach in schools... too autoritarian for me  ;-)
I'm not in a french speaking environment but a rather similar one, langue
d'oc not langue d'oil but close enough indeed.  Anyway I'll very
interesting in translating effort to my languages and also to help you
improve and continue evolving the project.


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-16 Thread Christophe Gragnic
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 8:07 PM cilz  wrote:
>
> I guess it's microAlg which you can find here:
> http://microalg.info/
> I' dont know if there is an english translation of the website which is 
> french.

Hi, very glad that MicroAlg left some memories here and there!
The website, all the keywords, documentation is French only.
MicroAlg is a language directly embedded in PicoLisp (my student had
access to all PicoLisp syms).


On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 11:20 AM pd  wrote:
>
> yes, that it is.  A very interesting project specially for education

Thanks for your interest.
The project is now stopped because Python must now be used in high
school in France.
If ever you are in a French speaking env and are interested in
teaching I'd be glad to chat.


On Mon, Apr 15, 2019 at 11:37 AM Nehal  wrote:
>
> Indeed this website is wonderful.

Many thanks! It was quite some hard work for me who is not a full time dev.
Please note that I spent more time on the language itself and the
tooling than on the website!

> However I am looking for something only based in PicoLisp.

Indeed MicroAlg is not what you are looking for.
But let me make some suggestions:
1) Don't underestimate the (natural) language barrier.
Many of my students were glad the language was in French.
But your students may be good enough at reading/writing English.

2) Don't understimate the power of syntax highlighting
(rainbow parens, delimiters and delimited sections, and keywords).
You'll be happy to be able to debug a program in 10ms.

3) Don't underestimate the fun that kids can have in a playground.
You want you students to work with a practical language, with real applications.
This is very nice but may not be really needed at first.
Toy programs with text display, with a turtle, with shapes to draw…
could be enough.

4) Deployment is important too. Try to make it easy.
Thank to Jon Kleiser I was able to make the snippets run in the
browser too, which was a bliss.

Have fun!


chri

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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-15 Thread Nehal
Hi everyone,

Thanks for responses.

Indeed this website is wonderful. However I am looking for something only
based in PicoLisp.

Thus I would make such snippets and share beautiful things here for
everyone. It seems there are other people looking forward to introduce Lisp
to children at an early age. It would be great if we can give something
amazing in PicoLisp.

Thank you.

Best
Nehal

On Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 14:51 pd 
>
> On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 8:08 PM cilz  wrote:
>
>> Hello folks,
>>
>> I guess it's microAlg which you can find here:
>>
>> http://microalg.info/
>>
>> I' dont know if there is an english translation of the website which is
>> french.
>>
>>
> yes, that it is.  A very interesting project specially for education
>
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-15 Thread pd
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 8:08 PM cilz  wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> I guess it's microAlg which you can find here:
>
> http://microalg.info/
>
> I' dont know if there is an english translation of the website which is
> french.
>
>
yes, that it is.  A very interesting project specially for education


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-14 Thread cilz
  Hello folks,I guess it's microAlg which you can find here: http://microalg.info/I' dont know if there is an english translation of the website which is french.Best,EricEnvoyé de mon BlackBerry - l'appareil mobile le plus sécurisé - via le réseau Orange   De: eukel...@gmail.comEnvoyé: 14 avril 2019 17:01À: picolisp@software-lab.deRépondre à: picolisp@software-lab.deObjet: Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids  I'm aware of the existence of a project based in picolisp and focused on education and learning children, I remember it was developed by french people but can't remember any nameThat Project had a web, a web based editor to type code and execute it and also graphic capabilitiesI cannot remember if I Heard about it here in this list or surfing the web, sorryOn Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 3:11 PM Alexander Burger <a...@software-lab.de> wrote:Hi Nehal,

> Discussion over IRC is a good idea. What time will be best?

I think almost any time is good, as there are usually members from east Asia
over Europe till the Amerikas.

☺/ A!ex

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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-14 Thread pd
I'm aware of the existence of a project based in picolisp and focused on
education and learning children, I remember it was developed by french
people but can't remember any name

That Project had a web, a web based editor to type code and execute it and
also graphic capabilities

I cannot remember if I Heard about it here in this list or surfing the web,
sorry

On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 3:11 PM Alexander Burger 
wrote:

> Hi Nehal,
>
> > Discussion over IRC is a good idea. What time will be best?
>
> I think almost any time is good, as there are usually members from east
> Asia
> over Europe till the Amerikas.
>
> ☺/ A!ex
>
> --
> UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:picolisp@software-lab.de?subject=Unsubscribe
>


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-14 Thread Alexander Burger
Hi Nehal,

> Discussion over IRC is a good idea. What time will be best?

I think almost any time is good, as there are usually members from east Asia
over Europe till the Amerikas.

☺/ A!ex

-- 
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Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-13 Thread Nehal
Hello,

Thanks for your detailed response.

My focus is initiating them in PicoLisp. Also these are young, bright
children who are in homeschool, are of 9, 11 ages and will just begin baby
steps in Computer Science.

 All I want is KID LEVEL CODE SNIPPETS.

Discussion over IRC is a good idea. What time will be best?

Best
Nehal

On Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 16:16 Joh-Tob Schäg 
> Hello Nehal,
>
> here are several tangent thoughts.
>
> First: PicoLisp is great for mathematics, as long as you stay with
> integers or fractions (frac.l). Working with 2.321 by *Scl is cumbersome
> and there is no good way to hide the scaling for a new users yet. Even when
> it is very irritating. I would claim "hiding" what PicoLisp does internally
> is against the philosophy of PicoLisp.
> The only other way would be to "build" your own floating points by
> cons-ing the decimal place to the number.
>
> When i was young, i found turtle graphic a very intriguing toy. I used a
> platform called netlogo.
> The idea is that you have a turtle on the plain which you move by relative
> coordinate changes.
> Such a thing is great for drawing diagrams too.
> The problem is that i think it is impossible to do a nice implementation
> of that, since sin, cos, sqrt, multiplication with 2.321 , all would need
> to be implemented in which makes the implementation much less nice than a
> implementation in a language which "just" works with float points.
>
> That said:
> If you mostly do not need floating points or find a work around that works
> for you and them PicoLisp is indeed an option.
> If there is one area where PicoLisp is a really nice toy it is:
> symbolic-ai/lisp-ai/good-old-fashioned-ai
> The idea is that you describe your problem in symbolic term and let it be
> solved by search, symbolic transformations and hard coded behavioral rules
> and clever heuristics.
> The computer could be made to play chess with them, stack simulated boxes
> or chat really badly with them. Or something like that.
>
> If you want to go down this route SICP might be a excellent inspiration.
> However it is aimed at university students in so far as it builds programs
> to calculate a symbolic derivative. If they are not familiar with such
> concepts and would like more visual stuff, a nice road to introduce
> recursion is L-Systems (they are simple symbolic systems which can be drawn
> out to look very plant like,).
>
> These are my initial thoughts if you could tell us your ideas i can give
> more detailed feedback.
> It might be interesting to arrange a time where people interested in that
> could meet in the IRC and discuss some ideas for an hour.
>
> sincerely freemint
>
>
>
>
>   Ursprüngliche Nachricht
>
>
>
> Von: nehalsingha...@gmail.com
> Gesendet: 13. April 2019 11:41
> An: picolisp@software-lab.de
> Antworten: picolisp@software-lab.de
> Betreff: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids
>
>
> Dear PicoLisp programmers,
>
>
> I'll be introducing PicoLisp to two young  exceptionally bright
> sibling children (Ojas, boy age 9 years and Oshin, girl age 11 years, who
> are in homeschool) who have no experience of computer science and
> programming.
>
>
> PicoLisp being the most advanced computational framework and perfect model
> language suits best for this purpose
>
>
> Migrating from one language to another becomes a tough job later in life.
> Such as children knowing Sanskrit/German as their first language will find
> them easy than people who learn them later in lives after already speaking
> English (or any other language for that matter).
>
>
> I'm very excited to begin this as it is a radical approach and is
> extremely challenging.
>
>
>  I am considering what and how I should start. And at what stage should
> they be introduced to C and Assembly?
>
>
> I want them to get idea of PicoLisp as the language for handling all their
> day to day projects that they'll be needing to do in coming days, and later
> in life.
>
>
> I also plan to introduce PicoLisp in local communities and schools
> depending on my experience with them. You may be aware that proponents of
> other Lisps such as http://www.racket-lang.org are putting lot of effort
> with beginner level, easy to programme colorful pictures, animations and
> graphics to provide lively introduction to young students to introduce
> their language as first language early in their lives, even as a tool to
> learn elementary Math, Science and also to make beautiful presentations.
>
>
> Children will find it extremely attractive if they can create something
> out of PicoLisp, like diagrams, presentations, Math (using svg library to
> make geometric shapes, plot graphs etc).
>
>
> These are some of my ideas that I'll be trying to implement. Yet I'll also
> be needing help of other PicoLisp programmers in this regard.
>
>
> Active cooperation, reviews, feedback and suggestions are welcome.
>
>
> Best,
> Nehal


Re: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids

2019-04-13 Thread Joh-Tob Schäg

Hello Nehal,

here are several tangent thoughts.

First: PicoLisp is great for mathematics, as long as you stay with integers or 
fractions (frac.l). Working with 2.321 by *Scl is cumbersome and there is no 
good way to hide the scaling for a new users yet. Even when it is very 
irritating. I would claim "hiding" what PicoLisp does internally is against the 
philosophy of PicoLisp.
The only other way would be to "build" your own floating points by cons-ing the 
decimal place to the number.

When i was young, i found turtle graphic a very intriguing toy. I used a 
platform called netlogo. 
The idea is that you have a turtle on the plain which you move by relative 
coordinate changes.
Such a thing is great for drawing diagrams too. 
The problem is that i think it is impossible to do a nice implementation of 
that, since sin, cos, sqrt, multiplication with 2.321 , all would need to be 
implemented in which makes the implementation much less nice than a 
implementation in a language which "just" works with float points.

That said:
If you mostly do not need floating points or find a work around that works for 
you and them PicoLisp is indeed an option.
If there is one area where PicoLisp is a really nice toy it is: 
symbolic-ai/lisp-ai/good-old-fashioned-ai 
The idea is that you describe your problem in symbolic term and let it be 
solved by search, symbolic transformations and hard coded behavioral rules and 
clever heuristics.
The computer could be made to play chess with them, stack simulated boxes or 
chat really badly with them. Or something like that.

If you want to go down this route SICP might be a excellent inspiration. 
However it is aimed at university students in so far as it builds programs to 
calculate a symbolic derivative. If they are not familiar with such concepts 
and would like more visual stuff, a nice road to introduce recursion is 
L-Systems (they are simple symbolic systems which can be drawn out to look very 
plant like,).

These are my initial thoughts if you could tell us your ideas i can give more 
detailed feedback.
It might be interesting to arrange a time where people interested in that could 
meet in the IRC and discuss some ideas for an hour.

sincerely freemint 




  Ursprüngliche Nachricht  



Von: nehalsingha...@gmail.com
Gesendet: 13. April 2019 11:41
An: picolisp@software-lab.de
Antworten: picolisp@software-lab.de
Betreff: PicoLisp for 9-11 years' kids


Dear PicoLisp programmers,


I'll be introducing PicoLisp to two young  exceptionally bright
sibling children (Ojas, boy age 9 years and Oshin, girl age 11 years, who are 
in homeschool) who have no experience of computer science and programming.


PicoLisp being the most advanced computational framework and perfect model 
language suits best for this purpose 


Migrating from one language to another becomes a tough job later in life. Such 
as children knowing Sanskrit/German as their first language will find them easy 
than people who learn them later in lives after already speaking English (or 
any other language for that matter). 


I'm very excited to begin this as it is a radical approach and is extremely 
challenging.


 I am considering what and how I should start. And at what stage should they be 
introduced to C and Assembly?


I want them to get idea of PicoLisp as the language for handling all their day 
to day projects that they'll be needing to do in coming days, and later in life.


I also plan to introduce PicoLisp in local communities and schools depending on 
my experience with them. You may be aware that proponents of other Lisps such 
as http://www.racket-lang.org are putting lot of effort with beginner level, 
easy to programme colorful pictures, animations and graphics to provide lively 
introduction to young students to introduce their language as first language 
early in their lives, even as a tool to learn elementary Math, Science and also 
to make beautiful presentations.


Children will find it extremely attractive if they can create something out of 
PicoLisp, like diagrams, presentations, Math (using svg library to make 
geometric shapes, plot graphs etc). 


These are some of my ideas that I'll be trying to implement. Yet I'll also be 
needing help of other PicoLisp programmers in this regard.


Active cooperation, reviews, feedback and suggestions are welcome. 


Best,
NehalPԔ � )mX�����zV�u�.n7�