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foobarian

You know, what way is there today to get the simple experience of a C64 or a ZX spectrum? Several things there:

- Instant on with a high level language interpreter

- Simple architecture/ISA one can grow into

- Maybe a monitor/assembler available from the interpreter

- Powerful graphics, with simple things possible from the language, and full power available from machine code

This would be perfect for around 8-10 year old. I can't tell if I'm underestimating kids but it feels like starting with a Linux or comparable modern OS/machine just has too many layers of abstraction to get that "cozy" feeling of a micro.

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About 15 years ago I started with my graphing calculator. Dont know if those have changed any over the years.

It was texas instruments flavor of basic. Simple enough to get started, automating my math homework :) Just move right to get to the edit 'tab', and select the program you want to edit. Right once more to create a new one.

By the way, if any of you reading this happened to be the manager who decided to spend a few extra cents including explanations for if/then, for loops, variables, etc in the back of the manual, THANKS! You are probably the reason I have the career that i do today. Once I realized that an evening spent programming meant no math homework for a few weeks, I was hooked!

I get the nostalgia for something like the c64 - but I think Alan Kay has a point, paraphrasing Montessori - that if we want to prepare someone for (a better) future we need to place them in that environment. So we need an intuitive, powerful environment suited for parallel processing (starting small, say a thousand cores or so). That's if we want to prepare them for the future.

If we're content with giving them some "best of 80s"-ideas, I think racket and/or Pharo Smalltalk is about as good as we can make it.

I'm guilty of stooping down to less powerful and futuristic systems myself - I find python to a very good mix of intuitive / simple and "real world" useful.

Other than that, I guess playing with forth in a boot loader is pretty good if what one really wants is "close to hardware":

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Forth_Lessons

Maximite? http://geoffg.net/maximite.html

> The Colour Maximite is a small and versatile single chip computer running a full featured BASIC interpreter with 128K of working memory and eight colours on a VGA monitor.

> It will work with a standard PC keyboard and because the Maximite has its own built in SD memory card and BASIC language you need nothing more to start writing and running BASIC programs.

> The Colour Maximite also has 40 input/output lines including an Arduino compatible connector. These I/Os can be independently configured as analog inputs, digital inputs or digital outputs. You can measure voltage, frequencies, detect switch closure, etc and respond by turning on lights, closing relays, etc - all under control of your BASIC program.

It's showing its age a bit, but still sounds useful.

Processing / p5.js?

https://processing.org/tutorials/gettingstarted/

http://p5js.org/get-started/

Web browser + view source + notepad is definitely the modern introduction to coding.

Most of that can be achieved with the right programming environment on a Linux or other modern system. I guess Scratch tried to be a new kind of programming environment, but it's too limited to scale to more serious use.

Minecraft, with a computing addon?

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