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And thus: uneducated youth. So, the rPi is a good thing since it allows us to continue to educate youth on the value of reprogrammable computers in spite of th

And thus: uneducated youth. So, the rPi is a good thing since it allows us to continue to educate youth on the value of reprogrammable computers in spite of the best efforts of your wholesale heroes to make everyone stupid.

protomyth 13y ago
No real clue what you mean. The rPi is a neat toy but not in a position to be the gateway to programming that the 8-bit computers were in the late 70's and early 80's. It is a toy for the elite not the mass market.
- fit2rule 13y ago
  Well, a lot of people have them, and a lot of people are hacking on them who might not have hacked on anything like it before .. so I consider it at least a solution to the problem, until someone releases a new-school micro with everything built in ..
  - protomyth 13y ago
    The problem is "a lot of people have them" is a very small amount compared to the number of 8-bit computers that sold. I am still at a loss how we lost a whole price range of computers. I wish for a modern day Sinclair to rescue us.
    - fit2rule 13y ago
      I still have every 8-bit machine I ever used to educate myself, and they still work. In fact my children are using them to learn programming, too. I think what happened was that people got lazy and decided to just buy games instead of developing themselves. And this lead to the game console, and .. developer greed economy .. and the rest is history. There are still great machines out there that can encourage youth to develop software - take the Open Pandora, for example (http://openpandora.org/ http://openpandora.org/) - it comes with everything you need to develop great software, and is complete. It is expensive - the economies of scale dictate this alas - but until someone rises up and demonstrates to 'the majors' that there is viability in teaching someone to program software again, we won't get compilers back onboard. Imagine if the Nintendo had a compiler cartridge .. Imagine the same thing for the PS3/XBoxen of today. All it takes is a little less consumerism and a little more developerism. Encourage a developer ethos on all fronts!

protomyth 13y ago

No real clue what you mean. The rPi is a neat toy but not in a position to be the gateway to programming that the 8-bit computers were in the late 70's and early 80's. It is a toy for the elite not the mass market.

fit2rule 13y ago
Well, a lot of people have them, and a lot of people are hacking on them who might not have hacked on anything like it before .. so I consider it at least a solution to the problem, until someone releases a new-school micro with everything built in ..
- protomyth 13y ago
  The problem is "a lot of people have them" is a very small amount compared to the number of 8-bit computers that sold. I am still at a loss how we lost a whole price range of computers. I wish for a modern day Sinclair to rescue us.
  - fit2rule 13y ago
    I still have every 8-bit machine I ever used to educate myself, and they still work. In fact my children are using them to learn programming, too. I think what happened was that people got lazy and decided to just buy games instead of developing themselves. And this lead to the game console, and .. developer greed economy .. and the rest is history. There are still great machines out there that can encourage youth to develop software - take the Open Pandora, for example (http://openpandora.org/ http://openpandora.org/) - it comes with everything you need to develop great software, and is complete. It is expensive - the economies of scale dictate this alas - but until someone rises up and demonstrates to 'the majors' that there is viability in teaching someone to program software again, we won't get compilers back onboard. Imagine if the Nintendo had a compiler cartridge .. Imagine the same thing for the PS3/XBoxen of today. All it takes is a little less consumerism and a little more developerism. Encourage a developer ethos on all fronts!