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Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:00 AM

Why Johnny can't code

BASIC used to be on every computer a child touched -- but today there's no easy way for kids to get hooked on programming.
By David Brin

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  • Thursday, September 14, 2006 11:39 AM

    My First Guitar

    I haven't read the other letters so I apologize if this is redundant, but I will say this: your son is 200+ pages into his book on C++. At this point he should be drunk on its power and possibility, and ready to get into some serious coding (Tetris or Sudoku might be good projects). Why cripple him with BASIC just because its "easy for beginners"? It's like teaching someone using a Les Paul, then once he's gotten pretty good, switching him over to a My First Guitar toy.

    —Anonymous

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