[geeks] Little Kids + Unix

[dave at cca.org]

n2vip at yahoo.com writes:

>There is also the novelty of running programs on an
>"old" computer, like something from the mid-eighties,
>like a TRS-80 or Apple II. Restoring one might make a
>fun father/son project (and the cost will be quite
>low!)...

Getting kid's attention these days is hard. You've gotta
show them something pretty killer to tempt them away
from the Windows environment "all their friends run".

Interpreted languages with good graphics primatives are
a good way to get people interested. Logo, Postscript, etc.
Creating graphics are good for instant gratification.
And the "It's a programming language!" thing is a good
way to get over the "Where's Internet Explorer!?!?" problem.

Perhaps creating web pages using plain ol' html and a text
editor would be good. Gets them to learn the CLI environment
to manipulate files, and the gratification is there in being
able to create actual web pages, maybe even stuff their 
friends can access from their (lame) PCs.

------ David Fischer ------- dave at cca.org ------- http://www.cca.org ------
---------------------- "It's something to do." Cerebus --------------------