I'm currently a 30-year-old IT consultant who has always been recognized for computer skills ever since in my junior high school years. In fact, my computer and math skills gave me the privilege of going to a state magnet high school for science and tech.

What got me started in computers is a BASIC Reference book in my stepdad's library. Looking back, PC XT had just come out during that era but we couldn't afford a computer. I think I was fascinated with the idea that you could put some lines shown under Examples and have a predictable and logical output. For some reason, I was so fascinated with it, I even "stole" some computer magazines from school library, I think it was called Contact or something--they had few pages of BASIC programs. In less than couple months I was drawing the output of BASIC programs on a blank sheet of paper. I so exhilarated by the fact that I was actually comprehending the programming language.

Anyway, to make the long story short, I got into a geeky tech high school and then learned to program in many languages, starting with Assembly, Fortran, and then Pascal. And now, I'm quite capable of programming in almost any programming language I choose without much difficulty--just give me access to reference manuals. Another words, I "get" computers. Although I haven't used those languages for years now, those early experiences with BASIC drove home the essential lessons necessary to understand the inner workings of a logical machine. I'm not working as a lead programmer for Google or anything, but I've been heavily involved in IT businesses over the years. So I'm just another case example of what Mr. David Brin was trying to write about.

I wrote about this on my blog a few weeks back, pondering the same conundrum. And the conclusion I came to is...

Flash.

Yep, that bane of many web surfer's lives is ideal for kids to learn to program with.

You can do simple graphic animations quickly and easily, then if you want to delve deeper, say, to program a simple game, you can, and you can do it using a language (ActionScript) that is similar in form and function to many of the most commonly-used programming languages in the workplace (C++, Javascript, Java, etc, not to mention Flash itself), and it's an easy way into understanding object-oriented principles. Plus, it's relatively simple to post the fruits of your labours to your MySpace page for all your friends to admire (since most computer-literate kids these days are all on MySpace).

Macromedia should take an older version of Flash (maybe v6), and make it freeware, possibly even brokering a deal with Microsoft or Apple to include it in their respective OS installations.

Just my twopenneth worth.

Russell.

http://www.squeak.org/

Twenty years ago I acquired an Apple IIe, soon got into BASIC and was forthwith into writing programs for my German and history classes.

Ten years ago I acquired my wonderful MAC (since replaced a couple of times; they just don't make them like the ol' IIe any more). And in the last ten years I've not written a single line of code, and I've missed the experience (which can really be intense!)

I still find myself considering certain problems in terms of writing BASIC.

Neither Apple nor any of the other big names seem to be interested in helping introduce players to the heart of the big "game". This syndrome is similar to the books and manuals written by computer geeks, for computer geeks. (My geekdom lies mostly in other fields: political, philosophical.) Even the recent so-called BASIC aps (See, I can do a little computerese.) are couched in such abstruse language as to render them fairly inaccessible to most.

Now, I'm going to read this article. The topic really set me off! Maybe help is available?

When was the last time you heard of a little boy named Johnny?

In today's age of stupid creative names, it would be more accurate to say Why Dylan, or Dakota, Tanner, Tristin, Cody, Carson, Hunter, Camden, Farnsdon, Glenton, Ramdon, Taylor, Marston, Arndon, Clemson or Flanadon can't code.

Just to be more in touch with today's youth and their parents.

He touches on a number of things that bother me about technology today. The biggest is the " New is good and Old is bad" idea that seems to be in the subconcious of every person in the tech industry. Things are discarded because they are old instead of because they don't serve a purpose. New things are added because they are New, not because they serve a valid purpose.

I am in a position that I evaluate the IT skills of computer techs. I have found that a good knowledge of DOS is a flag that marks a better quality technician. They understand that the GUI is just a pretty picture and that something else is going on under the hood. They new techs have never seen an "Old" command prompt and they believe everything they see in a window.

I feel that a big problem is that computers aren't really processing machines anymore. You have to babysit them now. I used to run a CAD service starting in the DOS days and ending up in the Win 95 era. In DOS it was a simple task to throw hundreds of CAD drawings into a directory, do 30 seconds of setup, and then type a batch file name and then walk away while the equipment did all the work. It was easy to string lots of automated tasks together. Now computers require you to sit in front of them and click on everything. You can't walk away and have it do the work. The only way past this deficiency is to have a programming project for every different task.

( We still automate processes using DOS batch files in XP because IT WORKS!)

BTW - I read the whole article before realizing who the author was. Only thing I would like him to add is another Uplift novel!