I learned programming in TI-BASIC for the TI-83+ graphing calculator. I did like how it made it easy to asking the user for input and displaying output on the n

I learned programming in TI-BASIC for the TI-83+ graphing calculator. I did like how it made it easy to asking the user for input and displaying output on the next line, but it also let you display text anywhere on the screen, or draw points on a graph to show the user pictures. One of my programming project ideas is reproducing the TI-83’s functions (like Output, Menu, and GetKey) in JavaScript, and then making a site where people can write for that simple, familiar platform, but in a modern language like JavaScript (or CoffeeScript). You would be using JavaScript to control a 96x64 virtual black-and-white screen. So you could write your TI-BASIC program in a more powerful language, using a full-size keyboard to type much faster, and afterwards share the program on the web where others can run it in the browser. Maybe most would-be programmers wouldn’t like TI-BASIC as much as I did for learning programming, and that tool wouldn’t solve the problem in the article. But at least that tool would be a great stepping stone for people who already know TI-BASIC to learn modern programming. I wish that tool had existed when I started learning programming on the desktop.