4 ms·

I actually started a small collection of old children's programming books [1, 2] a few years back. I've done some research regarding "typing practice" for progr

I actually started a small collection of old children's programming books [1, 2] a few years back. I've done some research regarding "typing practice" for programmers and how older generations did not have the luxury of copy/paste. I think one of the aspects that helped students overcome the technical barrier was the fact they had to reimplement the code themselves, rather than cloning a git repo. [1] https://boingboing.net/2016/02/07/usborne-releases-free-pdfs-of.html https://boingboing.net/2016/02/07/usborne-releases-free-pdfs... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Adventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Adventure

asciimov 5y ago
One of the problems I faced when my family got our first computer in '97 was there was no included programming environment on Win 95, not even a Basic interpreter. I remember my local library was full of those kids programming books with little games you could type in, and I had no way of putting them in and running them. Worse, the only programming books I could get running back then were those "Learn Java in 24 Hours" style books that came with a cd that included a compiler, but no IDE. I remember giving up after a lesson or two because all I had was notepad to type in the code, and the errors thrown were too complex to understand. (Probably a missed semicolon.)
- mysterydip 5y ago
  I believe win95 still had qbasic (with its built-in IDE and help/examples) in the Windows folder, but it wasn't in the Start menu anywhere. May have been on the CD instead.
  - linguae 5y ago
    QBASIC was my first programming language, which I learned on my parents PC running Windows 95. It wasn’t installed with Windows 95 by default; I had to copy it from the Windows 95 CD.
    - asciimov 5y ago
      That is kinda how I remember it. Our computer was from Packard Bell, it didn't come with a proper windows disc and used some proprietary image installer for reinstalls. We did get the Win95 Extras disc as I clearly remember playing Hover!
  - asciimov 5y ago
    My memory of qbasic on Win95 is hazy. I seem to remember it being there, but it didn't include any of the built in examples or games. Maybe I tried programming things from the books and either couldn't get them to work, or they would run too fast to be playable. Either way, it wasn't predominately featured and without knowing anyone with programming experience, I didn't have any one to ask.
    - mysterydip 5y ago
      Yeah, not blaming you at all. It's unfortunate they had it as an afterthought. Could you imagine if they included an educational copy of VB4?

asciimov 5y ago

One of the problems I faced when my family got our first computer in '97 was there was no included programming environment on Win 95, not even a Basic interpreter. I remember my local library was full of those kids programming books with little games you could type in, and I had no way of putting them in and running them. Worse, the only programming books I could get running back then were those "Learn Java in 24 Hours" style books that came with a cd that included a compiler, but no IDE. I remember giving up after a lesson or two because all I had was notepad to type in the code, and the errors thrown were too complex to understand. (Probably a missed semicolon.)

mysterydip 5y ago
I believe win95 still had qbasic (with its built-in IDE and help/examples) in the Windows folder, but it wasn't in the Start menu anywhere. May have been on the CD instead.
- linguae 5y ago
  QBASIC was my first programming language, which I learned on my parents PC running Windows 95. It wasn’t installed with Windows 95 by default; I had to copy it from the Windows 95 CD.
  - asciimov 5y ago
    That is kinda how I remember it. Our computer was from Packard Bell, it didn't come with a proper windows disc and used some proprietary image installer for reinstalls. We did get the Win95 Extras disc as I clearly remember playing Hover!
- asciimov 5y ago
  My memory of qbasic on Win95 is hazy. I seem to remember it being there, but it didn't include any of the built in examples or games. Maybe I tried programming things from the books and either couldn't get them to work, or they would run too fast to be playable. Either way, it wasn't predominately featured and without knowing anyone with programming experience, I didn't have any one to ask.
  - mysterydip 5y ago
    Yeah, not blaming you at all. It's unfortunate they had it as an afterthought. Could you imagine if they included an educational copy of VB4?