6 ms·

"The machine boots into BASIC" :-) I was 8 or 9 years old when the ZX Spectrum +2 arrived home. I'm seriously considering installing this on an old laptop and

by Rygian 22d ago

"The machine boots into BASIC" :-) I was 8 or 9 years old when the ZX Spectrum +2 arrived home. I'm seriously considering installing this on an old laptop and giving it to my son when he's 8 years old, together with a hard-copy of a BASIC reference and a few simple programs and games to type in. Getting a FAT32 filesystem on day 1 is already a huge jump from my childhood experience (loading from tape).

StilesCrisis 22d ago
As a parent who had a very similar experience growing up, I've tried putting BASIC in front of my young kids. It didn't work at all; the magic just isn't there anymore. If you've got an iPad, there's unfortunately no wonder in "I can make the computer do whatever I want". Also, kids know how modern computers are supposed to look and feel, and BASIC won't get them there. Sorry.
- raverbashing 22d ago
  That sounds more like an opportunity to rethink how a new beginner language for modern computers should look like (Maybe something more like Hypercard I guess - or something that renders to HTML)
  - unrented7977 22d ago
    That's why they made Scratch, which seems to have been fairly successful
    - skrellm 22d ago
      Visual programming is not for everyone. I have two kids, one loves Scratch, the other despises it. Fun fact, Scratch wasn't the first iteration of visual programming, and one could argue that Lego NXT was even more successful. https://www.nxtprograms.com/help/learn.html https://www.nxtprograms.com/help/learn.html
  - StilesCrisis 22d ago
    Frankly HTML itself might be a decent introduction. There's structure, but it's wildly forgiving, and "I made my own website" can be sufficiently motivating for some.
- alnwlsn 22d ago
  That's a shame, I'm quite a bit younger than both of you and this is exactly how I learned to program. When I was a kid, computers were icons and a mouse, with no indication of how they worked or how you would go about making them do whatever you want. But I found a bunch of old BASIC books in my school library; the kind of computer in there had no icons, but very much encouraged you to program it. It took me a while to find one of those computers (but not as hard as it is now, they were literal trash back then), but I was hooked once I did. Modern tech has a huge barrier to entry if you know nothing about it. I didn't even know what "install a program" was at the time, before soon learning it means "get in trouble" for messing up the (one) family computer.

by Rygian 22d ago

StilesCrisis 22d ago

As a parent who had a very similar experience growing up, I've tried putting BASIC in front of my young kids. It didn't work at all; the magic just isn't there anymore. If you've got an iPad, there's unfortunately no wonder in "I can make the computer do whatever I want". Also, kids know how modern computers are supposed to look and feel, and BASIC won't get them there. Sorry.

raverbashing 22d ago
That sounds more like an opportunity to rethink how a new beginner language for modern computers should look like (Maybe something more like Hypercard I guess - or something that renders to HTML)
- unrented7977 22d ago
  That's why they made Scratch, which seems to have been fairly successful
  - skrellm 22d ago
    Visual programming is not for everyone. I have two kids, one loves Scratch, the other despises it. Fun fact, Scratch wasn't the first iteration of visual programming, and one could argue that Lego NXT was even more successful. https://www.nxtprograms.com/help/learn.html https://www.nxtprograms.com/help/learn.html
- StilesCrisis 22d ago
  Frankly HTML itself might be a decent introduction. There's structure, but it's wildly forgiving, and "I made my own website" can be sufficiently motivating for some.
alnwlsn 22d ago
That's a shame, I'm quite a bit younger than both of you and this is exactly how I learned to program. When I was a kid, computers were icons and a mouse, with no indication of how they worked or how you would go about making them do whatever you want. But I found a bunch of old BASIC books in my school library; the kind of computer in there had no icons, but very much encouraged you to program it. It took me a while to find one of those computers (but not as hard as it is now, they were literal trash back then), but I was hooked once I did. Modern tech has a huge barrier to entry if you know nothing about it. I didn't even know what "install a program" was at the time, before soon learning it means "get in trouble" for messing up the (one) family computer.