"Why Johnny can't code"

[thegathering]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Why are you placing quotation marks around the word programmers. It doesn't matter what language they are programing in as so long the program works.

There is a difference between a programmer, coder, scriptor, and software engineer. "Programmer" was put there because there is no better term for the form that they program in, as it is not the same as other forms of writing code. Programmer, as I associate it, implies that the user is coding in a programming language. Visual programmer would be a better term to put in the "programmer" spot, but at the time I could not think of a better term.

I have editted my post to reflect the terminology.

[AudieMurphy]

Great article and great thread. Thanks for posting this.

That article mentions all my old favorites. Back in the day, I learned to program on a green screened Apple II and later got a Commodore Vic20 for Christmas. Yeah, I was jealous of you C64 guys. BASIC was loads of fun, and later in life when I had some projects that could only be solved with a custom computer program, I went out and found Qbasic and later Visual Basic to get the job done. I'm really glad that I spent a year staring at those green screens while Mrs. Owen taught me the mysteries of Apple Basic. It has served me well.

Course, new functionality was often wasted on me. It was a long time before I actually used an ELSE statement because we didn't have that animal when I stared out, and I was still numbering my lines in increments of ten long after there was no need to do so.

Ah, the good ol' days. Software was scarce and it was a Garbage In/Garbage Out world. Mountain Dew kept us awake all night and Doritos kept us alive so we could finish those clunky programs. Sigh. It almost brings a tear to the eye.

[Orborde]

So apparently someone took this article to heart:

http://kidbasic.sourceforge.net/

[EHaskins]

Another person made KPL Kids Programming Language. Its a BASIC like language, but it has very simple commands to do some 2D and even 3D graphics.

[RbtGal1351]

I completely agree with the author of that article. Thank you for the link, Jamie.

I am a prime example of what the author is talking about as well. For those of you who know me, you may be thinking, Huh?! You're obsessed with programming!
But I wasn't always. In fact, I hated the thought of ever possibly being a programmer. I thought it would be the worst career (let alone hobby!) in the world.
In hindsight, what the author talks about is precisely why: I was scared because I didn't understand it, at all. I didn't think I could do anything related to programming, and it was hard.
(I never would have become a programmer and would still hate the concept of it, if it had not been for my teams programmers graduating in 2004, and us needing a programmer in 2005, and I reluctantly decided to give it a shot, and got hooked).

But the point is, the author is completely right--kids aren't going to learn the basics of programming and get familiar with it because there is nothing simple to start with. No one would climb Mount Everest before climbing the hill in the park down the street.

~Stephanie