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Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?

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eti:

--- Quote from: fourfathom on November 12, 2022, 05:38:09 am ---
--- Quote from: eti on November 12, 2022, 12:03:43 am ---I'd advise to skip that sterile, toxic and egotistical path (look at silicon valley types for confirmation of this) and maybe guide him into a PROPER engineering career, one where laws of physics.and constants are engineered, Vs the weekly whims of some gen X "engineer" at Google.

Stand him in good stead by lighting the fire of enthusiasm for PHYSICAL WORLD OBJECTS & it's far more rewarding.

--- End quote ---

Wow, eti, who pissed in your cornflakes?

I can't tell if your "sterile, toxic and egotistical" pejorative is directed at me, or software in general, or something else, so before I take offence I'm going to ask you nicely if you would care to explain this in more detail.

I'm not trying to turn my ten-tear-old grandson into a programmer, or an engineer -- that would be stupid and cruel.  I just wanted to give him the opportunity to learn a little more about logic and numbers than he is currently getting in school.  BASIC came to mind because I remember learning this simple, linear, essentially english-language, programming language and thought it might be an accessible way to familiarize a young boy with concepts such as IF, THEN, ELSE (FOR/NEXT can come later), and give him the chance to explore elementary-school math in a fun way.  If he wants to go further that's great, but that's up to him.

I currently design RF and digital gear, use Verilog, and code in C and C#.  There is no way I would try to teach my grandson that stuff at his age.

--- End quote ---

I’ve had a terrible day. I’m sorry. Take care.

BrianHG:

--- Quote from: fourfathom on November 12, 2022, 05:38:09 am ---
--- Quote from: eti on November 12, 2022, 12:03:43 am ---I'd advise to skip that sterile, toxic and egotistical path (look at silicon valley types for confirmation of this) and maybe guide him into a PROPER engineering career, one where laws of physics.and constants are engineered, Vs the weekly whims of some gen X "engineer" at Google.

Stand him in good stead by lighting the fire of enthusiasm for PHYSICAL WORLD OBJECTS & it's far more rewarding.

--- End quote ---

Wow, eti, who pissed in your cornflakes?

I can't tell if your "sterile, toxic and egotistical" pejorative is directed at me, or software in general, or something else, so before I take offence I'm going to ask you nicely if you would care to explain this in more detail.

I'm not trying to turn my ten-tear-old grandson into a programmer, or an engineer -- that would be stupid and cruel.  I just wanted to give him the opportunity to learn a little more about logic and numbers than he is currently getting in school.  BASIC came to mind because I remember learning this simple, linear, essentially english-language, programming language and thought it might be an accessible way to familiarize a young boy with concepts such as IF, THEN, ELSE (FOR/NEXT can come later), and give him the chance to explore elementary-school math in a fun way.  If he wants to go further that's great, but that's up to him.

I currently design RF and digital gear, use Verilog, and code in C and C#.  There is no way I would try to teach my grandson that stuff at his age.

--- End quote ---

This might be perfect for you: https://www.quitebasic.com/
Real-time online interpreter with program stepping to run a line at a time.
Sample basic programs included, simple enough for 10 year old beginners.
Nothing to download, 100% runs in your browser.
Even does simple graphics.

_Wim_:

--- Quote from: sokoloff on November 12, 2022, 01:18:50 am ---I'm a little surprised to see no one recommended scratch yet:
https://scratch.mit.edu/

--- End quote ---

Maybe not directly scratch as a language itself, but Lego Mindstorms is programmed with scratch:

https://education.lego.com/en-us/product-resources/mindstorms-ev3/teacher-resources/scratch-how-to-videos


Infraviolet:
I recall a website called "learn python the hard way" which, for the first few sections, before fancy object-oriented stuff started to be discussed, gave a very good introduction to common programming structures and universal functionality (shared between almost all langugages).
...But programming with an arduino, and therefore being able to have a program reading real sensors and running real actuators is a lot more rewarding for a beginner than writing programs which just do things on a screen.

DavidAlfa:
Didn't Lego made some sort of programmable stuff?
Would be great for him to program something he can actually see and play with.

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