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When I was a kid computers were just a text interface and you had to type code just to load the games (originally with BASIC, then with DOS). In the BASIC era w

When I was a kid computers were just a text interface and you had to type code just to load the games (originally with BASIC, then with DOS). In the BASIC era writing games was as easy as turning the computer on. OK you'd need machine code to do anything advanced but BASIC was a fantastic gateway drug (for want a better description). Trying to rekindle this was one of the aims of the Raspberry Pi but even with that, there isn't anything quite like the accessibility that the microcomputers of old had. Except maybe web development but in my personal opinion HTML+CSS+JS teaches bad programming habits (unless you're particularly OCD and disciplined). So I'm all for games like that in the article. In fact in some ways, it reminds me a lot of LOGO (another good gateway drug).

hbk1966 9y ago
I feel like this is something that helped a lot of people learn. The first programming language I started to learn was TI-BASIC on my calculator because I was bored to death. I wouldn't really recommend a BASIC-esqe language as someone's first. I really with we had some easy preinstalled language on Windows machines. Maybe have Python come with it or something, and some way for people to know it's there.
glhaynes 9y ago
I grew up with BASIC as a gateway drug, too (that's a great way to describe it on a number of levels!) and PICO-8 and the like are the closest modern equivalent I've seen to that kind of environment. Simple games with simple graphics plus the ability to drop into a code/sprite/etc editor with the press of a key. The only real negative to me is that Lua, like most any modern language (i.e. ones that regularly use indentation), doesn't seem particularly well-suited to being edited in a very low resolution window. But it's still the closest I've seen to something that recaptures that "immediate" magic of ROM BASIC.
heywire 9y ago
I think the problem with trying to rekindle this for the current generation of kids is that computers are simply way more advanced now than they were for us. We didn't have a pocket-supercomputer with a touch interface, realistic games, and an AI assistant that speaks and (sometimes) understands our speech. Being able to draw a triangle on the screen with a few commands was amazing to us, not so much for our kids.

hbk1966 9y ago

I feel like this is something that helped a lot of people learn. The first programming language I started to learn was TI-BASIC on my calculator because I was bored to death. I wouldn't really recommend a BASIC-esqe language as someone's first. I really with we had some easy preinstalled language on Windows machines. Maybe have Python come with it or something, and some way for people to know it's there.

glhaynes 9y ago

I grew up with BASIC as a gateway drug, too (that's a great way to describe it on a number of levels!) and PICO-8 and the like are the closest modern equivalent I've seen to that kind of environment. Simple games with simple graphics plus the ability to drop into a code/sprite/etc editor with the press of a key. The only real negative to me is that Lua, like most any modern language (i.e. ones that regularly use indentation), doesn't seem particularly well-suited to being edited in a very low resolution window. But it's still the closest I've seen to something that recaptures that "immediate" magic of ROM BASIC.

heywire 9y ago

I think the problem with trying to rekindle this for the current generation of kids is that computers are simply way more advanced now than they were for us. We didn't have a pocket-supercomputer with a touch interface, realistic games, and an AI assistant that speaks and (sometimes) understands our speech. Being able to draw a triangle on the screen with a few commands was amazing to us, not so much for our kids.