The Challenges of Programming

An interesting article on slashdot about whether kids still learn to program computers.

I remember starting with an Acorn Electron that mum and dad bought. Spent lots of time typing in programs, including "Frogger" which covered multiple pages of code printed in a magazine. Of course at that time I had no idea what I was typing. The commands were primarily in assembly language, but it was still fun seeing (and playing) the end result.

The article on slashdot asks whether kids still learn to program. One response makes a valid comment about the high barriers to entry. These days if you want to achieve something useful on the web you need to download lots of software (say Apache, PHP, mySQL, Java SDK, an editor like Eclipse) and then figure out the architecture and how to make it work. For sure there are tutorials available, but it can be a long road to travel before you complete the old "Hello World" starter example.