Starting programming is easier

Two Hundred Forty Second Post: Starting programming is easier

Back in the day, when I was learning BASIC, programming was complex and tedious. As a student you didn’t know why you were learning the parts of the language, but more importantly, you couldn’t use your programs to interface with the computer. I mean integrating the programs with Windows to do something. It seemed you could just write a loop to average two numbers.

Of course with BASIC, students are just learning the fundamentals of programming. Compared to today programming has grown, but it is still easier to get the resources need to learn. The web was new back then. Now the web is full of free source code to learn from. From www.sourceforge.net to www.codeproject.com , it is easy to find a program.

The one drawback though is the immense knowledge need to learn. Someone can understand the fundamentals in a week, but to actually learn to make programs that we use in Windows today, they would have to have worked with the programming language for some time.

But at least the programming interface is user friendly. I used to hate to type “list from 1 to 100,” and “list from 230 to 270” in order to view different lines of the code. The programs were simpler but fortunately navigating the code has become easier.

I write this as I have just finished a 3dbuzz VTM. I must say it went fast and I’d have to watch it again and do some research before I fully understand it. That is a little hard work it takes to learn something new.

It has been found that children from 3 and less just seem to “absorb” the language of their culture. No other time is language learned as fast. When we try to learn languages at a latter age it becomes hard. A child could learn it much more fluently in less time. So what if someone did an experiment to see if younger children 5 and under could learn a simple computer language. It would have to have a verbal language because writing is learned after speaking. The kids still could relate symbols to words. The only reason it probably hasn’t been done is the difficult to create the language. However, if apes and chimpanzees can communicate in a similar manner so could children.

Just something to thing about if you’re a cognitive psychologist. But in the meantime... May the Creative Force be with You