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Question

Kid's first program for this day and age

Answer 1

+9 A:

I think text on a screen would be fine - even for someone born in this decade. There is still something cool about telling the computer to say something and then see the computer regurgitate it back at you.

I would suggest Python as a good teaching language for kids because Python does not require you to expose all the language's features to start coding.

For instance this Python program is much easier for a kid to understand:

print "hello, world"

as apposed to this C# program that does the same thing:

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("hello, world");
    }
}

Andrew Hare 2009-07-13 00:31:47

But Java, C# and C++ do at least have a sensible rationale for how their code is arranged. What is so special about "print" that it "just works" in simple Python programs?

anon 2009-07-13 18:58:30

No, I agree that other languages have a sensible rationale, it is just that when explaining how things work to a child you don't have to tell them "just ignore the using, class, static, void stuff" when you use a language like Python.

Andrew Hare 2009-07-13 19:12:55

@Andrew At least for the first five minutes :-)

anon 2009-07-13 19:21:20

Aha - I guess no approach is perfect though :)

Andrew Hare 2009-07-13 19:29:21

OK, based on this suggestion I showed my 6-year old python. He's already doing stuff like this: p='poo' q=10 p*q. The console says "poopoopoopoopoopoopoopoopoopoo". His first program. This is a poignant moment in the life of a parent.

Andrew Shepherd 2009-07-26 05:13:46

Answer 2

+1 A:

This is a pretty good approximation of the one I used to do in applesoft basic to torture my brother ...

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("What's your name?");
        var ans = Console.ReadLine();

        if (ans == "JP")
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ans + " is awesome");
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ans + " is a doofus");
        }
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

JP Alioto 2009-07-13 00:34:00

That was one of the first programs they taught us in uni, except the lecturer was the 'awesome' one. Guess how many people changed it :p

glasnt 2009-07-13 00:35:18

Answer 3

+4 A:

Take a look at Scratch from MIT. It has all the elements that you are looking for (Graphic, sound, window, including programming concepts like assignment, loop, conditional, etc.).

Jimmy Chandra 2009-07-13 00:34:53

Answer 4

+1 A:

You can use the picture with brothers photo, and when clicking on the nose, show the message "Not to my nose"! Or something like this :)

Alex_L 2009-07-13 00:45:16

And you can change the mouse pointer to hammer :)

Alex_L 2009-07-13 01:14:09

Answer 5

+8 A:

Take a look at Microsoft SmallBasic (www.smallbasic.com). There is a smallbasic tutorial, about 60 pages, that covers the stuff we all learned in the beginning and then moves onto turtle graphics. Smallbasic even comes with a simplifed UI so they're not scared off by the UI of VS.

I installed SmallBasic for my 11 year-old. She spent the day with me at Code Camp and afterwards said she wanted to learn programming. So far, she really enjoys it.

Scott 2009-07-13 00:48:17

I've been using SmallBasic to get my 9-year old niece interested in programming - the simplified UI is great and you can "upgrade" the program to VB.net later.

Jazza 2010-04-09 13:15:56

I was just listening to this podcast on teaching kid's programming, using smallbasic: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=562

Andrew Shepherd 2010-06-03 03:37:01

Answer 6

A:

You could also look at Greenfoot. I've had a play around and it didn't seem too bad. Haven't tried it on any children myself though.

dave 2009-07-13 00:58:28

Answer 7

A:

Possibly introducing them to Perl with Gtk,Gtk2 lib's and perl modules would be awesome; but of course this only works if they know/understand Linux. If not, you could always introduce them to Java and Swing as this is the normal "language of choice" for first languages today. Personally I'm teaching my daughter C/C++ and telling her to deal with it... She's going to hate me :P

Suroot 2009-07-13 01:04:02

Answer 8

+1 A:

I think Alice from Carnegie Mellon University will be great for kids. Checkout http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=what_is_alice/what_is_alice

Babar 2009-07-13 01:12:27

Answer 9

A:

The first programming language nowadays is JavaScript:

<html>
<head>
<title>What is Michael?</title>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
<script>
  $(document).ready(function() {
    function taunt() { 
      alert("Michael is a greebly"); 
      taunt(); 
    }
    $("#btn_taunt").click(taunt);
  });
</script>
</head>
<body>
  <button id="btn_taunt">Press button for answer</button>
</body>
</html>

You can do everything in JS Bin to start, and then move to Bespin. Into the Cloud!

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 01:33:29

Ack. Have you tested that program? it's a really good way to lock up a browser.

Breton 2009-07-13 01:56:08

Also, there's a lot of overhead in that program. I'd rate it as 5th or maybe 10th program, but not first.

Breton 2009-07-13 02:00:27

@Breton: Locking up the browser is the whole point! The program in the original post fills the screen with "Michael is a greebly," in an endless loop.

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 02:24:58

@Breton: If you use JSBin as your development environment, all the overhead is isolated on the HTML tab.

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 02:25:53

@Breton: It locks up IE8, Firefox, and Safari on Windows, but both Opera and Google Chrome allow the <strike>victim</strike> user to elect to forbid the page from creating more dialogs.

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 02:50:10

I concede that a child may find that amusing.

Breton 2009-07-13 03:35:11

Answer 10

+5 A:

I instilled this experience in an 8 year old child recently. I directed him to type

javascript: alert("hello world!");

into the URL bar of a browser. from there he was excited, so I had him try

javascript: var name = prompt("What is your name?"); alert("hello "+name);

That was all I had prepared in advance, but his hunger for these things was insatiable. Soon we were changing the backgrounds on his favorite webpages, replacing link text, making things dance around. javascript urls are quite a powerful stepping block, because it's changing something mundane (a browser) into something the child can now control in various ways. And it doesn't require a whole lot of setup and fussing about with text editors and HTML before you see results like the other javascript suggestion does. That shit is boring. We want one simple command that makes the computer jump in an unexpected way, and suddenly you've got yourself a programming junky.

Breton 2009-07-13 01:52:52

+1 for JavaScript, but I recommend using JS Bin so that you can move to multi-line programs easily.

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 02:28:15

For lockup-the-browser goodness, javascript: function pwn() { alert("That's what your mom said!"); pwn(); }; pwn() ;Google Chrome browser detects the loop and allows the user to stop the page from creating more dialogs. Internet Explorer does not. Surely your child will not use this knowledge to make mischief on unguarded PCs running IE.

Thomas L Holaday 2009-07-13 02:41:29

Answer 11

A:

Slashdot pointed out the new "Kodu" visual programming language for kids:

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/2124218/How-To-Teach-Programming-To-Kids-Via-XBox

Video demo: http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14310459/kodu/videos/ces2009sync_kodu_dem_010909.html

Could be the new 20 GOTO 10...

Shane Cusson 2009-07-13 02:09:50

Answer 12

+1 A:

Keep an eye on Hackety Hack. It is currently undergoing some changes, but the old version is still available, as well as a sister (for lack of a better word) project called Shoes. Hackety Hack and Shoes were created as an answer to questions like yours. See this essay written by the author. He also writes about other languages that scratch similar itches on his blog.

Inching Forward 2009-07-13 18:47:07

Answer 13

A:

My lecturers at Kent University created a language for children in the OO day and age: http://www.greenfoot.org/

I'd say, the most most exciting first bit of programming would be a HTML hello world: "MY own webpage?!"

StuperUser 2009-07-13 18:50:58

Answer 14

A:

I'd probably suggest Smallbasic or another BASIC variant. It's not very geeky, but it's easy.

Paul Nathan 2009-07-13 18:59:58

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Kid's first program for this day and age

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