View Full Version : 11-year old child's first program!
nvteighen
May 17th, 2008, 09:22 PM
Hi there!
My little brother has surprised me today with a music jukebox written in Game Maker. It is really inefficient: files are statically linked inside the compiled code so it needs several minutes to start up (crashing Windows XP sometimes in the process). But he's proud on what he've done (and me too!): it's his first "useful" program (not just a maze game).
But he's obviously using the wrong tool. GameMaker Lite can be very limited, so what do you recommend for him?
LaRoza
May 17th, 2008, 09:25 PM
Hi there!
My little brother has surprised me today with a music jukebox written in Game Maker. It is really inefficient: files are statically linked inside the compiled code so it needs several minutes to start up (crashing Windows XP sometimes in the process). But he's proud on what he've done (and me too!): it's his first "useful" program (not just a maze game).
But he's obviously using the wrong tool. GameMaker Lite can be very limited, so what do you recommend for him?
The sticky has a link to a thread on programming for younger people.
I don't know how far his interests go though, Would he be interested in non GUI programming? Perhaps a quick introduction to easygui (from easygui import *) and make apps that way? At its simplist, it could be very easy.
(Tell him good job on the program for me.)
david_lynch
May 17th, 2008, 09:26 PM
I can't help but suspect that this is probably not the right forum to ask for windows programming advice...
LaRoza
May 17th, 2008, 09:32 PM
I can't help but suspect that this is probably not the right forum to ask for windows programming advice...
Programming Talk
This forum is for all programming questions.
The questions do not have to be directly related to Ubuntu and any programming language is allowed.
There are a lot of Windows programmers here to help.
Also, programming with most languages doesn't depend on the platform. Python + EasyGUI would be exactly the same on Linux and Windows.
Can+~
May 17th, 2008, 10:05 PM
Problem with young programmer, is that they expect some graphical output from their application, doing things on the console can be seen as boring (yeah, someone will say something like "but when I was young..."). I would suggest python for beginners, but for an eleven y/o, I would say flash, since it's pretty graphical and it has ActionScript, but now getting flash..
Quikee
May 17th, 2008, 11:31 PM
Squeak (http://www.squeak.org/).
Wybiral
May 18th, 2008, 12:55 AM
You would be surprised what _real_ languages a kid can learn. I've seen kids between 11-15 who can program in Javascript, Python, PHP, BASIC, you name it. One good example is Dmitri Gaskin, who writes plugins and stuff for Drupal, and does presentations on jQuery (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mwKq7_JlS8)... He's 12!
So, IMO the drag-n-drop style programs like gamemaker and stuff might be good for VERY young kids (I have no idea how young is too young), but my experience with kids suggests that if taught right, and they have an interest in learning, they have no problem skipping that stuff and going right to a real language, I'm referring mostly to the 11-12 and up kids.
dimopolous
May 18th, 2008, 01:03 AM
Super cool!!! At 11 I typed for hours these programs (assembly language????) from Compute! magazine into an old Atari. They never worked! I cant imagine having Ubuntu at age 11. Tell him to keep at it!!!:guitar:
pmasiar
May 18th, 2008, 01:53 AM
Squeak, Logo, Guido van Robot might be good. Especially logo, it has turtle graphics output, and really simple way to define new functions.
Then Python and EasyGUI.
days_of_ruin
May 18th, 2008, 01:57 AM
Pygame!
keifer
May 18th, 2008, 02:10 AM
Hackety Hack (http://hacketyhack.net/) might merit a look. It works on windows, and appears is aimed at introducing children to programing. Shoes (http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/shoes/) could also be a good starting point. It's a dead simple Gui toolkit, and it has a fairly entertaining (and short!) manual.
I realize that Ruby isn't the most popular language out there, but _why's , um, energetic way of covering material in a conversation tone would probably mesh well with a younger mind.
nvteighen
May 18th, 2008, 12:10 PM
Hey, thank you all! Now he plans to make "something to write" (I imagine he wants to create a text editor).
This kid has done some other things before with HTML on plain Notepad... also some games on Game Maker, but he doesn't like that. I myself began with Sinclair BASIC around 12 (on a ZX Spectrum I found on my grandad's old stuff), with some MS-DOS previous experience (thanks to dad).
What he needs is to make the jump into concepts like variables and simple loops... but as Can+~ says, he expects some graphical output. Visual Basic Express??
I'll watch the links you people have given me. Let's see.
Lster
May 18th, 2008, 12:16 PM
Java with Netbeans is quite nice (it was my first serious language too). Being able to create a UI very easily and link in events with minimal effort was a great boost. I have recently reinstalled Java after not touching it for more than a year and am quite impressed...
nvteighen
May 18th, 2008, 06:44 PM
Hey, I'm taking a look on Squeak (being cross-platform, it's even better!)... it seems interesting, but the GUI seems a bit difficult to me; I'll have to find out how to use it by myself first.
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