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From: Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Why Johnny can?t code
Date: 4 Sep 2014 15:01:58 GMT
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On 2014-09-02, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
> http://www.salon.com/2006/09/14/basic_2/
>
>    For three years - ever since my son Ben was in fifth grade - he and I
>    have engaged in a quixotic but determined quest: We've searched for a
>    simple and straightforward way to get the introductory programming
>    language BASIC to run on either my Mac or my PC.
>
>    Why on Earth would we want to do that, in an era of glossy
>    animation-rendering engines, game-design ogres and sophisticated avatar
>    worlds? Because if you want to give young students a grounding in how
>    computers actually work, there's still nothing better than a little
>    experience at line-by-line programming.
>
>    Only, quietly and without fanfare, or even any comment or notice by
>    software pundits, we have drifted into a situation where almost none of
>    the millions of personal computers in America offers a line-programming
>    language simple enough for kids to pick up fast. Not even the one that
>    was a software lingua franca on nearly all machines, only a decade or so
>    ago. And that is not only a problem for Ben and me; it is a problem for
>    our nation and civilization.

Aren't there a number of programming languages designed for beginners?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2468227/internet/scratch--squeak--alice-and-go----programming-for-kids--adults-and-everyone-else.html

http://scratch.mit.edu/

http://www.squeak.org/

http://www.alice.org/index.php

http://golang.org/

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