8 ms·
When I was ~9 (maybe 8, maybe 10) I picked the GW-Basic book from shelf (my dad had that for some reason) and started reading. I was fist thick and mostly a sum
by icoder 3y ago
When I was ~9 (maybe 8, maybe 10) I picked the GW-Basic book from shelf (my dad had that for some reason) and started reading. I was fist thick and mostly a summation of commands, so it did not made a whole lot of sense, but hey, I had a day off from school (or was on sick leave) and had already finished the (much thinner) MS-DOS book. And I just loved computers.
Luckily when my dad came home he explained that we actually had GW-Basic on the computer (an IBM XT my dad had bought second hand from a friend's dad who was IN computers). That's where it all started. My dad could keep up for a bit but soon I had to rely on whatever the local library offered, and later a floppy disk that somehow made its way to me (copy by copy) full of useful TXT files and examples. Oh internet where were you.
So I feel a bit reserved towards the 'YOUR SON DOES NOT WANT TO LEARN TO CODE' screams that seem only based on very, very little context. But I do agree with the general advise, best to not jump to conclusions and go by their (the kids) pace.
- chrismorgan 3y ago> I picked the GW-Basic book from shelf (my dad had that for some reason) and started reading. My Dad was a software developer. But for various reasons, he never initiated and practically never taught us anything about software development: but made sure that books were available, so that if it interested us, we could figure it out ourselves. Well, I and my two elder brothers were each copying things from that BASIC book by the age of six or seven, and making up our own stuff within a couple of years, and we all ended up software developers. (None of my other siblings were at all interested.) Most children around these ages probably don’t want to learn to code. But, as my dad puts it, there are some that, when they see what is possible, find the notion of making computers do what they want irresistible. We three all definitely wanted to learn to code.