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Ruby4Kids: Another initiative to teach kids with Ruby

35 points by macco 16y ago

swGooF 16y ago
What age of kids does it target?
adriand 16y ago
Not sure if everyone has seen: http://www.railsmentors.org/ http://www.railsmentors.org/ But it's another worthwhile project.
euroclydon 16y ago
The more resources to teach kids programming the better! Especially ones which use games, but ugh, += and @ signs on the front page! I'm sure my kids would get used to the syntax without too much trouble, just like they deal with the idiosyncrasies of the English language, but Python seems like a better language to teach kids with, especially since there's only one way to do something in Python.
- rue 16y ago
  Kids are pretty good about malleability. Legos > jigsaw puzzles.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  I actually (surprise!) disagree. The primary reason is this: Ruby's flexibility as a language lets you give them simpler libraries. You have to consider the language as a whole, not just the base language. For example, Shoes just wouldn't really be possible in Python. At least, it'd end up being much worse. In the end, though, it's really just partisan squabbling. Let's worry about getting as many kids as possible exposed to programming before we start optimizing, eh?
nickpinkston 16y ago
@steveklabnik Google helped with http://hackety-hack.com http://hackety-hack.com right? Is this an extension of that?
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean by 'Google helped.' Ruby4Kids has no relationship with Hackety. We just share the same goals.
  - nickpinkston 16y ago
    Didn't Google sponsor someone for gSummer of Code to work on Hackety?
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      Ahhh. No. Google said "Summer of Code will not have any Ruby projects," so the Ruby community put a bunch of money together and did Ruby Summer of Code. Same thing, no Google.
dablya 16y ago
I'll be damned if I have to start listening to my daughter interrupt my technical conference calls with "you know, you guys could have this already done with a few lines of ruby"
freedrull 16y ago
In case you missed it, there was more discussion about Ruby4Kids here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158231 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158231
3pt14159 16y ago
I was looking through some of those videos and I felt a very strong pang of envy. These kids have videos that will live forever on the internet of them programming. I wish I had that from when I was 6 to 13ish (before I started coding for money).
brudgers 16y ago
OK, I thought this might be cool - so I clicked on over to Ruby4kids [http://ruby4kids.com/ruby4kids http://ruby4kids.com/ruby4kids]. The first link is to Gosu [http://code.google.com/p/gosu/wiki/RubyTutorial http://code.google.com/p/gosu/wiki/RubyTutorial]. This isn't for kids. The first heading is 1. Overriding Window's callbacks.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Gosu isn't for kids. But that doesn't mean that people can't use Gosu to teach kids, with proper instruction.
  - brudgers 16y ago
    >"Gosu isn't for kids" That's what makes it inappropriate as the first link on Ruby4kids. It's analogous to having dotnet4kids link to: http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/Beginning-Game-Development-Part-I--Introduction http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/Beginning-Game-... rather than to this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff384126.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff384126.aspx

35 points by macco 16y ago

What age of kids does it target?

Not sure if everyone has seen: http://www.railsmentors.org/ http://www.railsmentors.org/ But it's another worthwhile project.

euroclydon 16y ago

The more resources to teach kids programming the better! Especially ones which use games, but ugh, += and @ signs on the front page! I'm sure my kids would get used to the syntax without too much trouble, just like they deal with the idiosyncrasies of the English language, but Python seems like a better language to teach kids with, especially since there's only one way to do something in Python.

rue 16y ago
Kids are pretty good about malleability. Legos > jigsaw puzzles.
steveklabnik 16y ago
I actually (surprise!) disagree. The primary reason is this: Ruby's flexibility as a language lets you give them simpler libraries. You have to consider the language as a whole, not just the base language. For example, Shoes just wouldn't really be possible in Python. At least, it'd end up being much worse. In the end, though, it's really just partisan squabbling. Let's worry about getting as many kids as possible exposed to programming before we start optimizing, eh?

nickpinkston 16y ago

@steveklabnik Google helped with http://hackety-hack.com http://hackety-hack.com right? Is this an extension of that?

steveklabnik 16y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by 'Google helped.' Ruby4Kids has no relationship with Hackety. We just share the same goals.
- nickpinkston 16y ago
  Didn't Google sponsor someone for gSummer of Code to work on Hackety?
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    Ahhh. No. Google said "Summer of Code will not have any Ruby projects," so the Ruby community put a bunch of money together and did Ruby Summer of Code. Same thing, no Google.

dablya 16y ago

I'll be damned if I have to start listening to my daughter interrupt my technical conference calls with "you know, you guys could have this already done with a few lines of ruby"

freedrull 16y ago

In case you missed it, there was more discussion about Ruby4Kids here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158231 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158231

3pt14159 16y ago

I was looking through some of those videos and I felt a very strong pang of envy. These kids have videos that will live forever on the internet of them programming. I wish I had that from when I was 6 to 13ish (before I started coding for money).

brudgers 16y ago

OK, I thought this might be cool - so I clicked on over to Ruby4kids [http://ruby4kids.com/ruby4kids http://ruby4kids.com/ruby4kids]. The first link is to Gosu [http://code.google.com/p/gosu/wiki/RubyTutorial http://code.google.com/p/gosu/wiki/RubyTutorial]. This isn't for kids. The first heading is 1. Overriding Window's callbacks.

steveklabnik 16y ago
Gosu isn't for kids. But that doesn't mean that people can't use Gosu to teach kids, with proper instruction.
- brudgers 16y ago
  >"Gosu isn't for kids" That's what makes it inappropriate as the first link on Ruby4kids. It's analogous to having dotnet4kids link to: http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/Beginning-Game-Development-Part-I--Introduction http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/Beginning-Game-... rather than to this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff384126.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff384126.aspx