Suitable environment for a 7 year old [closed]

Answer 1

I think that Python might fit your needs. It is well known for being easier to learn than many other languages and the interactive interpreter allows programmers to immediately see what happens when a piece of code is executed. The IDLE gui that comes with it is easy to use. It also has a turtle module through TKinter.

https://docs.python.org/library/turtle.html

Answer 2

I was typing programs from the book "BASIC Fun" when I was in 2nd grade.

I distinctly remember that the concepts of infinite loops and INPUT A$ was like discovering gravity. Heady stuff.

Self taught, my progress was glacially slow, although I did reach a point in a program where I wished that GOSUB took variable arguments, which in retrospect meant I understood function pointers.

My early goals included writing LONG programs. A lengthy program not a bad goal for a 7 year old because a program with a well defined spec makes the risk of failure too high. Anyone can write a long program and feel good about it and learn a lot along the way.

There was a whole genre of books for programming in BASIC for kinds from the 80s. That stuff is a great source of programming ideas. However I wouldn't recommend using BASIC even for a 7 year old-- lua has the simple feel of BASIC but it isn't broken crap.

Answer 3

I became interested in programming when I was introduced to Turing language in high school. Turing was used as a teaching language in many schools at the time, and it worked very well for me to introduce programming concepts. Here is a description of Turing from WikiPedia

Turing is a Pascal-like programming language developed in 1982 by Ric Holt and James Cordy, then of University of Toronto, Canada. Turing is a descendant of Euclid, Pascal and SP/k that features a clean syntax and precise machine-independent semantics.

Named after British computer scientist Alan Turing, Turing is used primarily as a teaching language at the high school and university level. Two other versions exist, Object-Oriented Turing and Turing Plus, a systems programming variant. In September 2001, "Object Oriented Turing" was renamed "Turing" and the original Turing was renamed "Classic Turing". Turing is available from Holt Software Associates in Toronto.

Versions for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh are available. Turing is still widely used in high schools in Ontario as an introduction to programming.

In November 2007, Turing, which was previously a commercialized programming language, became freeware. As of November 28, 2007, it was available for download from the Holt Software website free of charge for personal, commercial, and educational use.1

Answer 4

I was involved with a primary-grade computer course using Stagecast. This is a graphical programming language designed for children. I found it an ideal introductory language because it is graphical and interactive. It does not require reading or mathematics, it runs on Windows and Mac OS, and is ideal for simple games so children are motivated to learn.

Answer 5

I am a bit torn about Alice.

On the one hand, it is nice to have a framework where you can program with direct visual gratification. This is really a good idea.

On the other hand, I think that it is a very bad idea to have beginners program exclusively by drag and drop. I fear that this might even lead to a sort of illiteracy, where they are unable to produce properly written code when the drag and drop interface is taken away.

Answer 6

There a book called Learning to program from pragmatic that is geared towards people who have never programmed before and might not be extremely technical.

It uses Ruby which can be quite easy for new people to pick up.