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I would have gone with Lua, personally, specifically eLua, but this is still pretty awesome.. for those who have the micro:bit already, whats it like? Do any o

I would have gone with Lua, personally, specifically eLua, but this is still pretty awesome.. for those who have the micro:bit already, whats it like? Do any of you guys have experience with giving one to kids and seeing what they do with it? I'll get one for my kids eventually .. but for sure, I'd imagine eLua to be high on the list of things to get running on it. EDIT: Lua would be better than Python, imho, because it doesn't require an editor for young minds to harness before they can get working code .. my experience with my 5 and 8 year old kids is that they absolutely are not interested in programming if everything has to line up right - as is the case with Python - but if there are less restrictions imposed on them by the language, the interest flourishes. To me, while Python is an easy language to learn, Lua is a better language to start with .. so if I were a micro:bit user, I'd be putting Lua/eLua on it ..

gfwilliams 11y ago
There is currently a version of Espruino for the Micro:bit too, so kids will have the ability to use JavaScript. You can even program/debug it over BLE as well :) However there's been virtually no interest in it so I haven't spent as much time on it as I'd have liked. Hopefully that'll change when the boards start appearing though.
- fit2rule 11y ago
  I'd be willing to help put Lua on the thing, if that's of any interest. I guess I'll start thinking about that when the boards ship and I have one available. Am I right in understanding you put Espruino on the micro:bit - care to tell us more about that?
pfalcon 11y ago
> Lua would be better than Python, imho, because it doesn't require an editor Can you elaborate on this? How does Lua not require an editor? Is it spoken programming language or something?
- Ysx 11y ago
  > they absolutely are not interested in programming if everything has to line up right
- fit2rule 11y ago
  Yeah, I was not quite coherent with that statement: I mean that Lua doesn't require that you learn to use an editor to line things up properly, a concept which my 5 and 8 year old kids definitely have an aversion to, since it seems like trivial nonsense (to them) to have to do formatting to make code work, having cut their teeth on the BASIC of our 8-bit battlestations set up for the task. I just mean, to a new programmer - especially a young one - having to grasp alignment/editing concept is a stumbling block, and unnecessary when languages like Lua provide all the same degree of power as Python, and less to learn to get started..

gfwilliams 11y ago

There is currently a version of Espruino for the Micro:bit too, so kids will have the ability to use JavaScript. You can even program/debug it over BLE as well :) However there's been virtually no interest in it so I haven't spent as much time on it as I'd have liked. Hopefully that'll change when the boards start appearing though.

fit2rule 11y ago
I'd be willing to help put Lua on the thing, if that's of any interest. I guess I'll start thinking about that when the boards ship and I have one available. Am I right in understanding you put Espruino on the micro:bit - care to tell us more about that?

pfalcon 11y ago

> Lua would be better than Python, imho, because it doesn't require an editor Can you elaborate on this? How does Lua not require an editor? Is it spoken programming language or something?

Ysx 11y ago
> they absolutely are not interested in programming if everything has to line up right
fit2rule 11y ago
Yeah, I was not quite coherent with that statement: I mean that Lua doesn't require that you learn to use an editor to line things up properly, a concept which my 5 and 8 year old kids definitely have an aversion to, since it seems like trivial nonsense (to them) to have to do formatting to make code work, having cut their teeth on the BASIC of our 8-bit battlestations set up for the task. I just mean, to a new programmer - especially a young one - having to grasp alignment/editing concept is a stumbling block, and unnecessary when languages like Lua provide all the same degree of power as Python, and less to learn to get started..