Computers for children

Fred Cisin said... | |This'll probably offend many. Maybe. I simply disagree - to an extent. |I think that an 8 year old would be best off with a machine with CD-ROM |capability. And a good size stack of reference disks, including |Encyclopedia Brittanica, atlases, and several collections of literature. What has that got to do with learning BASIC, or graphics? The nice thing about a Commodore, CompuColor, Mac II, etc, is the instant feedback. I realize the WWW can provide this (so long as you have a clear T3 path between systems 8^), but that's not the same. With a graphical basic, you create, you play. It's more like Legos(tm) or Tinker Toys (tm) than using a computer application. I agree that what you propose is a good thing for a kid to have, but it's a completely different topic - using the computer as a general purpose learning tool, or playing on a computer. What we were talking about was playing *with* a computer. |For programming, I would recommend BASIC, TO START WITH, followed by an |introduction to C and assembly as soon as basic principles are understood. I've yet to see a BASIC that runs on top of an OS that's as easy to get into and provides direct feedback as well as a graphical BASIC DOS. |Once the kid has gotten thoroughly into it, THEN maybe a birthday present |of a set of Linux disks? Hah. My kids started on Linux, at about 8 and 10. Yeah, I intend to (God help me) get a Win or Mac system soon, but only because there are too many things not yet available on Linux. But Linux is just fine as a newbie OS for a kid. -Miles