Thread: My Little Poney c/c++ Intro

Originally Posted by abachler

1. it should be fun, using themes familiar to kids like fairy princesses, poneys, ogres etc.
2. it has to be easy, and geared towards young children, which also means age appropriate content
3. It should be open source
4. It should be as cross platform as reasonable, which realistically means Windows and Linux, but the default is Windows, since most kids will have access to windows.
5. It should avoid excessively complex syntax, see rule #2
6. It should not be overly frustrating, see rule #1

I'm telling you dude, that's Ruby.

1) only language I've seen with built-in class/type "Big Number"
2) The symbol -- actually a big, red, gleaming Ruby! Even better: one of the "early classics" on Ruby:
Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
is a hand drawn cartoon featuring a talking fox.
3) Ruby is open source, and written in C.
4) Ruby I think runs pretty much everywhere.
5) Everything is an object in ruby. So the syntax is totally.simple -- it's all object + method. Even arithmetic.
6) IMO, nothing frustrating about it.

I don't use it for anything now; I learned it to do "Ruby on Rails" stuff last year. But it's very cute.

Originally Posted by abachler

I'm really not interested in teaching my daughter a useless language.

If she uses it, how would it be useless?

Like, it don't matter to me, but it seems that programming is programming. I am pretty sure most people would agree that knowing more than one language will give you a more complete perspective on all of them, even if the ultimate aim to just be really good with only one. You've referred to using BASIC as a kid, and BASIC is a totally useless language -- do you regret that time and wish you'd just used C++ from the beginning? The alpha and the omega, or something?

Also, it is a decent scripting language. I don't use it because I prefer perl (and perl ain't for kids), but there are any number of situations where an interpreted language is way more useful than a compiled one. IMO, and it's not a unusual one...

Originally Posted by abachler

No it isn't. It is commonly used in rapid prototyping of circuits. Often a BASIC stamp will be used for proof of concept.

Sure. Ruby is widely used on the web -- like, I guarantee there are more employed Ruby programmers than employed BASIC programmers. I presumed by "useless" you meant anything that wasn't C++. Now I understand you mean "anything abachler doesn't already know". This is fer sure a lost cause...the only reason I brought it up was because I have heard Ruby is used to teach kids in some schools (the way BASIC used to be used).

So forgetting about that, you may want to look at this:

I have actually had a good bit of luck engaging my 10-year-old in programming using a device called a BASIC Stamp. So I would like to spend a little time here talking about it. It is not cheap, but it has three things going for it:

1. It combines programming and simple electronics
2. The programming tends to be very simple.
3. You can do real things with it

It's about halfway down the page and involves one of those reusable plastic circuit boards with the little grid of holes that adults also use to learn and experiment with:
http://www.marshallbrain.com/kids-programming.htm
(...which of course you will want to at least research such things to avoid re-inventing the wheel)