languages for learning programming

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• Flawed as it is, BASIC remains the classic "language for teaching programming" (especially for kids); several free, full-featured versions are now available (some with source code).

Overview

There is a need for a programming language and environment that is suitable for teaching beginners – including children – to program.

Some key features:

• (Ideally) Available pre-installed on all popular OSs; next-best would be availability for free on the internet, in versions pre-compiled for all popular OSs
• BASIC-like in certain ways:
  • must have an "interactive" mode, where you type a line and the computer immediately executes your instructions
  • must have simple graphics ability readily available (where "readily" can be defined as "you can plot a pixel in a single line of code, where lines which include external libraries count as additional lines of code")
  • simple, non-picky syntax (syntax error messages should be informative and on-target, to reduce the learning curve)

This need has been brought up in different contexts and discussed a fair amount; for now, I'm just going to post some links. --Woozle 21:27, 14 September 2006 (EDT)

See also Wikipedia's Educational Programming Languages page, which has a few more choices than mentioned below.

Resources

• QuiteBasic: BASIC on the web; created in response to David Brin's "Why Johnny Can't Code" article
• Hackety Hack: tutorial aimed at 13 and up, teaches how to write your own blog software in a handful of minutes

Languages for Kids

• Alice
• BASIC-256 (formerly KidBASIC), also inspired by "Why Johnny Can't Code"
• Logo
  • references: CS for Kids
• Python
  • references: Python for Educators | Python: A Multimedia Approach | Python Bibliography | PyroLiveCD
• Ruby
  • references: Learn to Program in Ruby | A Little Ruby, A Lot of Objects | Try Ruby in your Browser
• Scheme
  • references: Dr. Scheme | How to Design Programs | Teach Scheme Project
• Scratch: animation language. Free downloads for Windows and Mac as of 2008-10-04.
• Squeak Smalltalk
  • references: Squeakland | FreeDuc LiveCD with Squeak

Links

• 2003-10-14 Teaching Kids to Program by Joshua Marin
• 2005-2-20 Teaching My Kids to Program by Don Box
  • discussion: lambda the ultimate
• 2005-2-26 It's Down to Scheme or Logo by Don Box
• 2006-09-14 Why Johnny can't code by David Brin
  • discussion: |slashdot| |Contrary Brin|: the latter includes a suggestion to use Python in a particular configuration; perhaps this configuration could be preconfigured and packaged?
• 2002-08-15 Why Johnny can't program by Dan Bricklin
• Thoughts about the Best Introductory Language by Shlomi Fish: list of fallacies, with a final opinion. Creative Commons license.
• A Very Quick Comparison of Popular Languages for Teaching Computer Programming
• Kid's Programming Language: free, but requires Microsoft Windows
• Phrogram: free version; also a commercial version that supports add-in libraries, requires Microsoft Windows, same team that created Kid's Programming Language
• Commodore 64 emulator (eventually, create Commodore 64 emulators page and link with emulators)