I just read the article posted here on Slashdot:
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/03/06/11/1348236.shtml?tid=126&tid=146&tid=156&tid=99
Basically it's suggests that kids today actually have more obstacles getting into programming. In some ways things are more complex, and they're less likely to have a compiler and editor at their disposal.
I originally started playing with programming when I was 15, using an old copy of "Programming for the IBM PC" and a copy of BASIC that was already on my 386 running MS-DOS. When I went to high school, our courses were taught with Apple IIe's using the version of BASIC stored in the Apple's ROM. The editor wasn't pretty...you'd type a line number, followed by a line of code. After hitting enter at the end of a line the screen would clear, so you'd have to remember what you'd typed. (I'd generally write out my code by hand the night before, and then enter it from my notes)
It wasn't pretty, but it was simple enough. My senior year our labs were upgraded to Power Macs and we were blessed with graphical development enviroments. (By then I'd moved on to Pascal and C)
The article made me realize that the simple technology we started out with (and the wide availablility of BASIC at the time) made things easier for us in the long run. We didn't have much to think about other than the algorithms we were learning, there were no fancy macros or debuggers. Now I'm not even sure what language a kid with an interest in coding would start with...what's most easily available to them? (I don't think BASIC ships with Windows)
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/03/06/11/1348236.shtml?tid=126&tid=146&tid=156&tid=99
Basically it's suggests that kids today actually have more obstacles getting into programming. In some ways things are more complex, and they're less likely to have a compiler and editor at their disposal.
I originally started playing with programming when I was 15, using an old copy of "Programming for the IBM PC" and a copy of BASIC that was already on my 386 running MS-DOS. When I went to high school, our courses were taught with Apple IIe's using the version of BASIC stored in the Apple's ROM. The editor wasn't pretty...you'd type a line number, followed by a line of code. After hitting enter at the end of a line the screen would clear, so you'd have to remember what you'd typed. (I'd generally write out my code by hand the night before, and then enter it from my notes)
It wasn't pretty, but it was simple enough. My senior year our labs were upgraded to Power Macs and we were blessed with graphical development enviroments. (By then I'd moved on to Pascal and C)
The article made me realize that the simple technology we started out with (and the wide availablility of BASIC at the time) made things easier for us in the long run. We didn't have much to think about other than the algorithms we were learning, there were no fancy macros or debuggers. Now I'm not even sure what language a kid with an interest in coding would start with...what's most easily available to them? (I don't think BASIC ships with Windows)
