[Coco] Slightly OT, But coco related

[Andrew]

John, I fully agree with your proposal. I can't see how kids today are 
"getting into" programming, at least not without a lot of trial and 
error, and frustration (as a professional software developer, I can say 
that this still applies!).

DHTML is probably the easiest thing kids can work with, and even it can 
be very daunting at time, leaving you scratching your head. Certain 
things you can't even do (using AJAX, mainly) unless you have an actual 
web server at hand.

A simple development environment, easily accessible for kids (but still 
with enough power to entertain adults, too!) would open many doors for 
new programmers. I don't see why it couldn't be based around BASIC, 
either. Have you seen Blassic or FreeBASIC? FreeBASIC, especially, can 
produce some really amazing software (it is essentially a gcc compiler 
target, so it produces a native executable), but is simple enough for a 
kid to pick up. Blassic is an interpretor, but with an emphasis on 
staying true to "old school" BASICs - it is pretty fast, too.

Anyhow, your ideas and spirit are in the right place - kudos and good 
luck on your efforts!

-- Andrew L. Ayers, Glendale, AZ

> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 20:36:22 +0000 (UTC)
> From: John R. Hogerhuis <jhoger at pobox.com>
> Subject: [Coco] Slightly OT, But coco related
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Message-ID: <loom.20080507T203024-591 at post.gmane.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> Cocoists that also use Ubuntu --
> 
> Many of us (including me) learned to program by typing in code at an OK prompt
> on a nuclear green background. That gateway has largely been lost for new users.
> Programming is an issue of an intimidating dev IDE, class libraries, and
> documentation scattered about the 'net.
> 
> In my Ubuntu Brainstorm idea, I suggest having a front-and-center scripting IDE
> (probably Python based) with a great tutorial and cartoons ala "Getting Started
> With Color BASIC."
> 
> Anyway, if you think this idea would be helpful to Ubuntu please vote for my
> idea (and I do make a good mention of the Coco as a source for this):
> 
> http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/8193/
> 
> Thanks for tolerating the shameless promotion,
> 
> -- John.