[geeks] Little Kids + Unix

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 10:00:31PM -0500, dave at cca.org wrote:
> Interpreted languages with good graphics primatives are
> a good way to get people interested. Logo, Postscript, etc.
> Creating graphics are good for instant gratification.
> And the "It's a programming language!" thing is a good
> way to get over the "Where's Internet Explorer!?!?" problem.

Have you looked at vpython?  That looks kinda fun.  I haven't really played
with it much.  Probably will someday.

Squeak also should be great for distracting kids.  It would be better if the
linux port were more complete (it is OK, but there is no 3D acceleration, nor
is there decent audio on linux).

One of the projects I'm actually moving forward on is working on creating an
interactive graphic scheme environment for playing with graphics stuff.  Why
scheme?  Because functional languages are great for this sort of thing, I 
happen to like lispish languages (as opposed to haskel or ML), and most 
importantly, guile is about the easiest lispish thing to write against, even
if it isn't the fastest.  When I get something useable, I'll have to post
links.  A win32 port of guile could be usefull (I find myself spending down
time on campus in the windows lab since the linux lab is badly configured and
doesn't have GL working properly, among other problems).

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd