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When I went to high school, there was a choice to go to this offshoot location for half the day, which had a programming class option. I went to that and it was
by jimmaswell 12y ago
When I went to high school, there was a choice to go to this offshoot location for half the day, which had a programming class option. I went to that and it was what you'd expect out of a high school level programming class, I guess. Maybe a bit worse since in C++ and VB.NET it didn't really go into any abstract theory or even get to classes and functions. Except apparently now they've started using Scratch instead of real languages in it. I have to wonder if that's inappropriately dumbed down for that grade level. Someone should be able to handle real programming languages at that age if they're making a serious attempt to learn the field.
- bjwbell 12y agoScratch is a real programming language! Programming isn't about how fancy the tools you use are. It's about what you do with the tools you have. I started out in nothing more than QBasic.
- evincarofautumn 12y agoQBasic was the Scratch of a certain era. The 0-to-pixels was small, the development environment offered useful help only a click away, and you could easily integrate it with external libraries if you wanted more advanced features or better performance.
- davidgerard 12y agoIt's bright and colourful and you can make the computer do things. It's perfect to catch the attention of a small child.
- jimmaswell 12y agoRight, it's great for them, but I was talking about high school
- davidgerard 12y agoSure, you want more than Scratch available - though seriously, if the kids just want to do Scratch? They learn that all this stuff is programmable and that they can make a computer do stuff. Do not underestimate the power of that epiphany, however it comes about.