Computers for children

From: Francois <fauradon_at_pclink.com>
Date: Tue Jan 12 20:05:37 1999

>I agree that what you propose is a good thing for a kid to have,
>but it's a completely different topic - using the computer as a
>general purpose learning tool, or playing on a computer. What
>we were talking about was playing *with* a computer.
>
>|For programming, I would recommend BASIC, TO START WITH, followed by an
>|introduction to C and assembly as soon as basic principles are understood.
>
>I've yet to see a BASIC that runs on top of an OS that's as
>easy to get into and provides direct feedback as well as a
>graphical BASIC DOS.

Apparently you have not tried Visual Basic...

>
>|Once the kid has gotten thoroughly into it, THEN maybe a birthday present
>|of a set of Linux disks?
>
>Hah. My kids started on Linux, at about 8 and 10. Yeah, I
>intend to (God help me) get a Win or Mac system soon, but
>only because there are too many things not yet available on
>Linux.
>
>But Linux is just fine as a newbie OS for a kid.

At what level are you talking? I have not seen any sofware for kids (like
the knowledge adventure or humongous entertainment series) that would run on
Linux. It is hard to get a kid used to play with windows for 6 years and
tell him that it is crap and the one where you have to type long commands is
a lot better.

>
>-Miles
>
Received on Tue Jan 12 1999 - 20:05:37 GMT