Kerkia

Learning Programming

Background

Software programming is a fascinating domain but can be very difficult to learn initially, especially for children. In the first days of advanced programming languages such as Basic, Logo or others, the development environments were basic and more suited to beginners and children; this has changed however as much more capabilities were added to those environments in support for the power of modern languages and computers. There is hence a need for more simple programming languages and environments for beginners and children to learn the basic of programming and start having fun and enjoying building programs.

Recommendation

We strongly recommend Small Basic, a nice and very easy-to-use IDE and language proposed by Microsoft’s DevLabs. Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.

Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.
The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.
Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.

Another quite nice alternative is the Liogo project, a LOGO compiler for .NET. It emulates the old but great LOGO language which is aimed at producing nice graphics, and comes with a basic, interactive programming tool. This is perfectly suitable for the first steps of learning software programming.