Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!gatech!ncar!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!schwager
From: schwager@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Programming language for youngsters
Message-ID: <7200067@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 88 04:01:00 GMT
Lines: 17
Nf-ID: #N:m.cs.uiuc.edu:7200067:000:994
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!schwager    Nov 15 22:01:00 1988


Well, my girlfriend decided to take the plunge.  She's buying an Amiga
500 for herself and her kids this Christmas.  She has an 8-year-old and
an 11-year-old.  Any suggestions on good programming languages that the
11-year-old could start out on?  I've heard it said that learning BASIC
as your first language could make you brain-dead for life, and I believe
it to be true.  Is there a logo interpreter?  I don't know myself,
perhaps 11-year-olds can pick up on Pascal or Modula-2 pretty easily.
But I imagine the Amiga is difficult to program even in those languages.

Anyway, could someone who knows help me out on this?  These little
rascals haven't had any programming experience to date, but they've
played with uncle's Mac and my Amiga (preferring the latter :-), and they
seem to be amazingly computer literate.  Thanks!
-Mike Schwager		schwager@a.cs.uiuc.edu
-- {uunet,convex,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!schwager   schwager%uiuc@csnet-relay.arpa
	University of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science