java
Kids Learning to Program Part 3
Filed in archive Basics by jason on October 9, 2005
BlogPicture

The new Kids Programming Language (KPL) looks pretty interesting to me. My son, who is ten, sat down with me to take a look at it and he thought it was "awesome." The IDE is freeware and along with the IDE download come a bunch of examples. All of the examples that I've seen provided include some graphics based component. With a few simple lines of code a beginner can make things happen rather simply on their computer screen. There is also a guide where the target audience is "Teachers" and it explains the intent of KPL very well.


What is Kid's Programming Language (KPL)?
  • was created for teaching beginners how to program

  • is a simplified but modern programming language and development environment

  • offers lots of sample educational KPL programs and games

  • emphasizes graphics, sprites, sounds and game development

  • is designed to help a beginner 'graduate' to Visual Studio or eclipse

  • can even generate C# or VB.NET code



The last bullet mentioned is probably the reason why "Microsoft has signed on to promote a new programming language intended to replace BASIC." KPL uses the Microsoft's CodeDOM namespace and programs written in it can be converted to VB.Net or C#. Also, since KPL is based on the .Net framework and can only run on a Windows platform, which makes an obvious why Microsoft chose it. It looks as though Microsoft's intention is not to replace C# or VB.Net with KPL but simple use it as a launch pad for young people who have never programmed before. Once a programmer wants to do more, with their newly found skills, they could easily progress to Microsoft's core development languages or move on to something else like Java ;-).


Permalink: Kids Learning to Program Part 3
Tags: Kids  programming 
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/10063
img Addthis img Ask img Blinklist img del.icio.us img Digg img Fark img Facebook img Google img Lycos img Ma.gnolia Add this page to Mister Wong Mr Wong img Netscape img Netvousz img Newsvine img Reddit img StumbleUpon img Slashdot img Tailrank img Technorati img Wink img Yahoo

Vote for Kids Learning to Program Part 3:

  • Currently 7.86/10
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
Rating: 7.86 out of 77 vote(s) cast.
Subscribe
Share It
RSSrss
See all blog subscribe options
Google google
What is RSS?
Yahoo! yahoo
Addthis Subscribe using any feed reader!
Bloglines Bloglines
Newsletter

TwitterFollow us on Twitter!