[Squeak-fr] KPL Kids programmers language

[Serge Stinckwich]

On est encore loin des Etoys ;-)

Début du message réexpédié :
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 1. The Kid's Programming Language
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> by Martin Heller
>
>
> When I was a 9th-grader interested in programming, my math teacher
> pointed me at the "computer lab," where the school had one IBM
> computer. This being 1965, the computer used drum memory, had a
> hexadecimal instruction set, and had an IBM manual for that
> instruction set. Period. I didn't get very far with that: our computer
> club, working together, eventually developed a program for generating
> the value of pi. It could spit out one digit every 5 or 6 seconds--and
> that was after optimizing the instruction interleave for the drum
> rotation speed.
>
> Fast forward 40 years. Here it is 2005, and I'm programming on 3 GHz
> Pentium IV computers with sophisticated integrated development
> environments like Visual Studio 2005 and Eclipse, in object-oriented
> languages like C#, Visual Basic .NET and Java. If you think about it,
> Visual Studio and Eclipse offer just as great a barrier to a young
> beginning programmer as that ancient IBM box, except that it's the
> opposite barrier: instead of having to learn to program with no tools
> at all, the new programmer now has to learn to use incredibly powerful
> and complex tools in order to program.
>
> There's Logo, of course, and StarLogo in particular. But Logo doesn't
> provide a great transition to object-oriented languages.
>
> A new, free alternative is the Kid's Programming Language (KPL), from
> Morrison Schwartz. Jon Schwartz is a Microsoft alumnus; Walt Morrison
> is an alumnus of NCR and Costco. KPL is the brainchild of their third
> core team member, Jonah Stagner, who wrote it to teach his own kids to
> program. According to the KPL Web site's Teacher's Introduction:
>
> "KPL stands for Kid's Programming Language. KPL makes it easy for
> kids to learn computer programming. KPL makes it fun, too, by making
> it especially easy to program computer games, with cool graphics and
> sound. KPL is not just for games, though’Äîit can be used for teaching
> many different subjects. KPL's emphasis on games is based on the
> belief that learning is best when learning is fun.
>
> "KPL is a freeware educational program developed by Morrison
> Schwartz, a software development and consulting company. KPL is also a
> growing community of teachers, students and parents from around the
> world who are learning and programming using KPL. KPL is still in its
> early stages, but already offers a number of sample programs as
> learning material, and we are working on much more."
>
> Another Morrison Schwartz Web page summarizes the language:
>
> "KPL's language is modeled on the simplicity and readability of
> BASIC, but it is a structured rather than linear programming language.
> KPL lets children see eye-catching and immediate results from their
> programs, while teaching them fundamental concepts like variables,
> data types, loops, decision structures, methods and functions. KPL's
> data types include integers, decimals, strings, booleans, arrays, and
> user-defined structures."
>
> To my eye, the KPL language looks like a stripped-down version of the
> Visual Basic language with some elements of C#. The control structures
> lean towards Basic (If/Then/Else/End If, For/Next, While/End While,
> Method/End Method), and there are no semi-colons. The comments, on the
> other hand, lean towards the C style: //.
>
> The language has data Structures, on the order of C structs, but not
> classes, and that's deliberate. The point is that object-oriented
> programming is not really appropriate for beginners.
>
>
> ** Read more at http://www.byte.com/documents/byt1128970353339/ **
>
> PhL
>
>

--                                                         oooo
Dr. Serge Stinckwich                                     OOOOOOOO
Université de Caen>CNRS UMR 6072>GREYC>MAD               OOESUGOO
http://purl.org/net/SergeStinckwich                       oooooo
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]   \  /
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