3 ms·
One common theme, at least for the programmers growing up in the 80s, was that all the BASICs had graphics support. Like you, I didn't learn logic and control
by ezy 16y ago
One common theme, at least for the programmers growing up in the 80s, was that all the BASICs had graphics support.
Like you, I didn't learn logic and control structures to print out tables of numbers, I learned it so I could make an object move on the screen and to draw pretty pictures. I learned all the print capabilities to make a pretty looking layout on the screen and to get some random information "just so".
The reason I say this is that I like the idea behind this text, a lot, for people who want to learn from nothing, but I don't think it will hold people's interest for that long. I keep wondering if they'll just burn out if you're doing nothing but printing out the textual results of logic puzzles.
I'm not asking for a video game, in fact, I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking for, but there's got to be a way to light a fire in someone's head the same way it lit in mine when I typed in "line 32,32 to 32,64" from the BASIC manual and a red line appeared on the screen... and I realized I could do anything on that screen with the right sequence of commands... anything.
(Well, I found out otherwise later... but that's how it felt)
(And yeah, I realize getting graphics set up in python sucks for rank beginners... part of the reason I'm not sure exactly what should be done...)
- Keyframe 16y agoyeah, goal oriented teaching is where it's at IMO. I still remember C64 and I typed in (I still remember it): POKE 53280,0 : POKE 53281,0 and voila, black 1337 haxor screen like "big" computers had! Then curiosity kicked in and I learned what POKE was and what it does and what are those addresses etc. Also one vital thing about my specific path is that I asked for a computer (my first one was ZX-80) when I read about some computer game (I think it was called valhalla or something) where there was this whole world you could explore and my first reaction was not "cool I'd like to explore it" but was more like "cool I can make my own world with this computer thing"!
- starkfist 16y agonodebox is pretty good for graphics, python and beginners. only works on macs, though.. http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Home http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Home if you don't care about python, processing is a great way to teach programming with instant graphic feedback and is cross platform.
- zedshaw 16y agoYes, but before you did any of that you did printing. Admit it, the graphics came much later unless you started with logo. If you started with logo though, you probably don't consider that language your first programming language. I just think that until there's a solid totally idiot proof way to do "write, run, fix" and get graphics you'll fail at this. It's this patter of writing out a file, running it, and fixing it that's missing really. But, I also think making things fun for people is overrated. Too often we think that in order to teach we have to entertain. Problem is that makes people (kids and adults) who can't learn anything hard. Hard problems are not entertaining. They may be satisfying, but until you've slogged through solving a bunch of them they aren't really entertaining. Anyway, I just don't think graphics and entertainment is where it's at. Making it possible to accomplish the exercises and feel like you learned something that gets you ready for fun and graphics is all I'm aiming for.
- ezy 16y agoNo, that actually wasn't the case -- although I can see why you'd think not. I typed in the graphics example from the BASIC manual[1] that gave you a blinky smily face and played with that. Ok, I went to printing and '10 print "hello" : goto 10' shortly after though... :-) Fair enough about the rest. I sort of wish I could look at the innards of that manual again to see how they structured it... [1] http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Extended-Color-Basic/dp/B000E35KDK http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Extended-Color-Basic/d...