2 ms·

I loved those as a kid, there was also a magazine that would come every month with program listing that I would type up and then try to modify... It was a lot

by gommm 16y ago

I loved those as a kid, there was also a magazine that would come every month with program listing that I would type up and then try to modify... It was a lot of fun and a great way to learn! Sometimes I wonder how kids can learn programing by themselves now, there's no environment directly available and if their parents don't introduce it to them, I don't think they'll stumble that easily into it... What was great at the time, is that any kid who had a computer or access to a computer would sooner or later play a bit with basic and try their hand at programming a bit

Natsu 16y ago
> there was also a magazine that would come every month with program listing that I would type up and then try to modify That wasn't 3-2-1 Contact magazine by any chance, was it? Because I remember typing the BASIC games they published into our computer.
- gommm 16y ago
  It was a french magazine with programs for the Thomson computers...
- timinman 16y ago
  I used to LOVE that mag, but I don't remember it having programs. Wow, it was cooler than I knew!
  - Natsu 16y ago
    I think they had about one program a month or something? But you're right that most of the magazine was about other things. I'm pretty sure that the programs they published were submitted by readers, but it's been a long time since I last saw that magazine, so my memory is fuzzy.
madewulf 16y ago
I think that you are right about the fact that kids will not stumble into programming if they are not searching for it. On the other hand, they have lots of reasons to search about programming (think of the mandatory techie present in most TV shows) and there are really nice tools to learn these days. I am thinking for example of Scratch, an MIT project devoted to learn programming to kids http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/. So resources are there and there are lots of spark that could ignite kids interest into programming but the real problem, I think, is not availability or interest, but the availability of "funnier" and "easier" things to do on a computer : social networks, downpour of games (when I was a kid, getting 2 games a year was a tremendous boon. Today, my nephew has access to more games than he could ever dream to play). This has been in fact described quite well by PG in his essay : The acceleration of addictiveness http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

by gommm 16y ago

Natsu 16y ago

> there was also a magazine that would come every month with program listing that I would type up and then try to modify That wasn't 3-2-1 Contact magazine by any chance, was it? Because I remember typing the BASIC games they published into our computer.

gommm 16y ago
It was a french magazine with programs for the Thomson computers...
timinman 16y ago
I used to LOVE that mag, but I don't remember it having programs. Wow, it was cooler than I knew!
- Natsu 16y ago
  I think they had about one program a month or something? But you're right that most of the magazine was about other things. I'm pretty sure that the programs they published were submitted by readers, but it's been a long time since I last saw that magazine, so my memory is fuzzy.

madewulf 16y ago

I think that you are right about the fact that kids will not stumble into programming if they are not searching for it. On the other hand, they have lots of reasons to search about programming (think of the mandatory techie present in most TV shows) and there are really nice tools to learn these days. I am thinking for example of Scratch, an MIT project devoted to learn programming to kids http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/. So resources are there and there are lots of spark that could ignite kids interest into programming but the real problem, I think, is not availability or interest, but the availability of "funnier" and "easier" things to do on a computer : social networks, downpour of games (when I was a kid, getting 2 games a year was a tremendous boon. Today, my nephew has access to more games than he could ever dream to play). This has been in fact described quite well by PG in his essay : The acceleration of addictiveness http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html