27 May
2016
27 May
'16
11:19 a.m.
I learned BASIC around that age. I used the Usborne book, which has been
made available as a PDF file by the publisher:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUXdYTnRaTy1LLVE/view
Op 27 mei 2016 8:12 p.m. schreef "Electronics Plus" <sales at
elecplus.com>:
http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Handbook-Encyclopedia-Computer-Language/dp/09327
60333/ for the basics of BASIC
http://www.amazon.com/BASIC-Computer-Games-Microcomputer-David/dp/0894800523
/ for games he can program in BASIC
from there go to
http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Adventure-Games-Your-Computer/dp/0345318838/
and http://www.amazon.com/More-Basic-Computer-Games-David/dp/0894801376/
One designed for elementary school kids that does not use BASIC is
https://www.amazon.com/Coding-Kids-Dummies-Camille-McCue-ebook/dp/B00MFPZASK
which works on a Mac or PC.
There is nothing like making your first program work to make a youngster
feel like a god!
Cindy
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ali
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 12:29 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: Need Rec: Book to teach about computers and BASIC at an eight year
old level
So somewhat OT - I've setup an 8 year old w/ an IBM PC XT w/ CGA. To say he
is less than impressed is understating things :). However, I am determined
that he will learn basic computer terminology, architecture, history (i.e.
how we got here) and at least get his feet wet with programming by learning
BASIC this summer.
Apparently teaching is not my strong suite - while I can talk about a larger
number of the above topics, especially at his level, organizing them in a
way to make sense is the problem. I was wondering if anyone could recommend
a good book that gets the basic stuff out of the way (what is the CPU,
memory, storage, etc. what are different the parts called, etc.) and maybe
another one that teaches an intro to BASIC written for a very young reader?
It would be nice if the book is in the PD or at least available as a PDF
that way he can read it on his Kindle. However, I am not averse to buying a
physical new (or used book) either.
Thanks.
-Ali
27 May
27 May
2:31 p.m.
I learned BASIC around that age. I used the Usborne
book, which has
been made available as a PDF file by the publisher:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUXdYTnRaTy1LLVE/view
Thanks for the linkage. That looks exactly like something I am looking for. The 80s
graphics are a bit outdated but still colorful enough to hold attention (I hope).
-Ali
2:52 p.m.
At the risk of being flamed... I'll mention that if the kid is more visually driven,
you might try introducing him to an Arduino Uno or similar. Something he can see the
results of his code in lights and dials.
J
3:04 p.m.
At the risk of being flamed... I'll mention that
if the kid is more
visually driven, you might try introducing him to an Arduino Uno or
similar. Something he can see the results of his code in lights and
dials.
Jay,
Baby steps - first I got to show him what a chip looks like then we can talk about
stringing HW together! ;)
-Ali
3:15 p.m.
On May 27, 2016, at 2:52 PM, Jay West <jwest at
classiccmp.org> wrote:
At the risk of being flamed... I'll mention that if the kid is more visually driven,
you might try introducing him to an Arduino Uno or similar. Something he can see the
results of his code in lights and dials.
And ultimately, the whole purpose of the RPi was for this sort of education. There are
lots of Pi-based kits out there created for this very purpose. E.g.:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/955
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1538
https://www.adafruit.com/products/3058
http://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-3-ultimate-kit.html
raspberrypi.org has tons of material aimed at that age group, both software and hardware
hacking.
For Arduino:
http://www.canakit.com/arduino-professional-kit.html
http://www.canakit.com/sparkfun-inventor-s-kit-for-arduino-with-retail-case…
With Arduino, you need a separate host computer to write/download the code on/from. But
the Arduino kits are much more oriented towards physical interfaces, and I defy you to
introduce me to an eight-year-old who doesn't want to build robots! :-)
4:18 p.m.
On May 27, 2016, at 5:15 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at orthanc.ca> wrote:
There are lots of Pi-based kits out there created for
this very purpose. E.g.:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=20410
Points to multiple links on the ?Gertboard? accessory. That adds lots of input/output
control and an Atmel controller to the Raspberry Pi. If you are going to get more (modern)
hardware, I second this recommendation as well. If your 8-year-old wants to flash lights
or control a robot or something, this may be pretty appealing.
The Raspberry Pi can also run (and has available, for free) an early version of Minecraft
and a pretty recent version of Mathematica, so it has a lot of potential ? but it has a
lot of potential to get distracted from what I think you are aiming for.
4:30 p.m.
On May 27, 2016, at 4:28 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg
<lyndon at orthanc.ca> wrote:
And THAT is the best part of everything.
I.e. get derailed! Lose complete track of what you set out to do. Discover the
unexpected, instead.
Break the kit! Make LEDs burn out. Then figure out why. That's what learning is.
6:43 p.m.
On 05/27/2016 02:52 PM, Jay West wrote:
At the risk of being flamed... I'll mention that if the kid is more
visually driven, you might try introducing him to an Arduino Uno or
similar. Something he can see the results of his code in lights and
dials.
One of my fondest memories of my long-deceased father was when he took a
plank of pine and built a 1-tube radio with me. I think it was a 1G4G
(triode). We wound and shellacked the coils. Earphones and A and B
batteries. It was wonderful--and I was hooked.
I don't know if ARM or AVR BASICs are available, but you can purchase
one-board MCUs (like the Maple mini) for next to nothing. I think that
getting that going with BASIC or any other language would be a great
adventure for a young boy.
After all, in a couple of years, he'll be teaching *you* how to use a PC.
--Chuck
8 p.m.
Speaking of LOGO (and the Terrapin..), I assume PILOT is still around in
some form? Correct me here, but I believe that a +BASIC+ implementation of
PILOT was released for either the VIC-20 (??) or the C-64. I recall typing
it in, back in the early 1980s, just for kicks.
Could that actually have been for the VIC? An admittedly simple (and
restrictive) high-level language coded in CBM BASIC, with like 3K of RAM? =)
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 8:43 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 05/27/2016 02:52 PM, Jay West wrote:
At the risk of being flamed... I'll mention that if the kid is more
visually driven, you might try introducing him to an Arduino Uno or
similar. Something he can see the results of his code in lights and
dials.
One of my fondest memories of my long-deceased father was when he took a
plank of pine and built a 1-tube radio with me. I think it was a 1G4G
(triode). We wound and shellacked the coils. Earphones and A and B
batteries. It was wonderful--and I was hooked.
I don't know if ARM or AVR BASICs are available, but you can purchase
one-board MCUs (like the Maple mini) for next to nothing. I think that
getting that going with BASIC or any other language would be a great
adventure for a young boy.
After all, in a couple of years, he'll be teaching *you* how to use a PC.
--Chuck
8:02 p.m.
Speaking of LOGO (and the Terrapin..), I assume PILOT
is still around in
some form? Correct me here, but I believe that a +BASIC+ implementation of
PILOT was released for either the VIC-20 (??) or the C-64. I recall typing
it in, back in the early 1980s, just for kicks.
Could that actually have been for the VIC? An admittedly simple (and
restrictive) high-level language coded in CBM BASIC, with like 3K of RAM? =)
I dunno about the VIC-20, but COMPUTE! had one for the Commodore 64 which
overlaid on BASIC. Clever idea I thought at the time.
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. -- Dion Bocicault -
8:09 p.m.
@Cameron
Pilot for the C-64 does sound much more plausible, yes.. And likewise, I
thought it was a very nice idea.
But hm.. other than formatting text, don't both the VIC-20 and C-64 share
the same CBM BASIC version? No reason that PILOT for C-64 couldn't run on
VIC, with enough memory expansion, I'd think?
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 10:02 PM, Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com>
wrote:
Speaking of
LOGO (and the Terrapin..), I assume PILOT is still around in
some form? Correct me here, but I believe that a +BASIC+ implementation
of
PILOT was released for either the VIC-20 (??) or
the C-64. I recall
typing
it in, back in the early 1980s, just for kicks.
Could that actually have been for the VIC? An admittedly simple (and
restrictive) high-level language coded in CBM BASIC, with like 3K of
RAM? =)
I dunno about the VIC-20, but COMPUTE! had one for the Commodore 64 which
overlaid on BASIC. Clever idea I thought at the time.
--
------------------------------------ personal:
http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com *
ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. -- Dion
Bocicault -
8:25 p.m.
Could that actually have been for the VIC? An
admittedly simple (and
restrictive) high-level language coded in CBM BASIC, with like 3K of
RAM? =)
I dunno about the VIC-20, but COMPUTE! had one for the Commodore 64 which
overlaid on BASIC. Clever idea I thought at the time.
3130
days inactive
3131
days old
12 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
cclist＠sydex.com -
cctalk＠ibm51xx.net -
drlegendre＠gmail.com -
iamcamiel＠gmail.com -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
lyndon＠orthanc.ca -
mtapley＠swri.edu -
spectre＠floodgap.com