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I agree- we should also have just as easy of a way to start off with drawing. Why do we need to install 50 frameworks, tell a window how to spawn, basically cr

I agree- we should also have just as easy of a way to start off with drawing. Why do we need to install 50 frameworks, tell a window how to spawn, basically create a universe just to start experimenting with creating computer graphics? It's a (Width x Height) matrix of RGB values-- why can't we get a simple way to create a simple 100x100 box for kids to draw in? No reason your son couldn't tell a screen to print colored pixels in RGB value with the right syntax.

aaronblohowiak 10y ago
Logo! Logo + basic were my entree into programming
- someone_ 10y ago
  Ya I can see that, I'm imagining a way a kid could make his OWN logo implementation, though. Logo is cool because you see the things you tell the little cursor to draw being drawn-- how could a kid implement something like his son's program, though, where a user is prompted to type their name and hit enter-- then a smiley face is drawn if their name is noah and a sadface is drawn if their name is anything else?
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    Start off with lower primitives. In Logo, for instance, have a "draw at pixel" command. Have a way of recording a state. The student can then recreate the notion of pen on/off and pen placement and movement on top of the basic primitive plus a conditional. Pen is moving from A to B, if it's on, it draws along the way, otherwise it just moves. Some challenges with the math involved in movement, but it's solving a linear equation. Minor issue with rounding, perhaps allow the numbers to be floating point and let the renderer handle which pixel to draw. Everything up to the external turtle can be handled in this same way as long as they have the primitives. Handling hardware, give them primitives to write to and read from devices. Build up the code on top of that to handle more complex situations like manipulating external servos over a serial port.
bglazer 10y ago
https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ I absolutely love Processing. It's a subset of Java with a dead simple IDE. Bonus points for exporting to Android, javascript, and executable jars for the desktop. Comes with excellent examples. The community is generally quite supporting and open as well. And to answer your question "why can't we get a simple way to create a simple 100x100 box for kids to draw in?" Here's the processing code that does exactly that: void setup() { size(100,100) } That pops a blank 100x100 box onto the screen. Drawing a line is line(start_x, start_y, end_x, end_y). Adding interactivity and animation is as simple as adding: void draw(){ ... do stuff ... } You, and everyone else, should check it out.
- ptrkrlsrd 10y ago
  Processing is a great and fun way to learn programming! I learned it that way, and I found that it kept my interest cause I could use it in a creative way while it also was easy to use.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

aaronblohowiak 10y ago

Logo! Logo + basic were my entree into programming

someone_ 10y ago
Ya I can see that, I'm imagining a way a kid could make his OWN logo implementation, though. Logo is cool because you see the things you tell the little cursor to draw being drawn-- how could a kid implement something like his son's program, though, where a user is prompted to type their name and hit enter-- then a smiley face is drawn if their name is noah and a sadface is drawn if their name is anything else?
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  Start off with lower primitives. In Logo, for instance, have a "draw at pixel" command. Have a way of recording a state. The student can then recreate the notion of pen on/off and pen placement and movement on top of the basic primitive plus a conditional. Pen is moving from A to B, if it's on, it draws along the way, otherwise it just moves. Some challenges with the math involved in movement, but it's solving a linear equation. Minor issue with rounding, perhaps allow the numbers to be floating point and let the renderer handle which pixel to draw. Everything up to the external turtle can be handled in this same way as long as they have the primitives. Handling hardware, give them primitives to write to and read from devices. Build up the code on top of that to handle more complex situations like manipulating external servos over a serial port.

bglazer 10y ago

https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ I absolutely love Processing. It's a subset of Java with a dead simple IDE. Bonus points for exporting to Android, javascript, and executable jars for the desktop. Comes with excellent examples. The community is generally quite supporting and open as well. And to answer your question "why can't we get a simple way to create a simple 100x100 box for kids to draw in?" Here's the processing code that does exactly that: void setup() { size(100,100) } That pops a blank 100x100 box onto the screen. Drawing a line is line(start_x, start_y, end_x, end_y). Adding interactivity and animation is as simple as adding: void draw(){ ... do stuff ... } You, and everyone else, should check it out.

ptrkrlsrd 10y ago
Processing is a great and fun way to learn programming! I learned it that way, and I found that it kept my interest cause I could use it in a creative way while it also was easy to use.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]