[dannycastonguay]

I just came here to say thank you for doing this team. When I wanted to teach my 5 year old how to type and do basic math, I did it in clojure using Repl.it

I may have biased it, but she found the experience more engaging than MIT Scratch (which is also very good).

When kids and newbies engage with a product so easily (think git before github), you suddenly vastly increase the userbase.

[amasad]

Thanks Danny! I think Scratch is probably the most impactful tool in getting more people into programming. We have nothing but respect for the team.

However, when we talk to some of the kids coming to Repl.it from Scratch they often say something along the lines of Scratch is an "adult's idea of what kids might like". I think some kids want to feel like hackers and like they're doing "the real thing."

To that end we're working on a framework that has similar semantics to Scratch but is actually Python: https://github.com/replit/play

BTW: a 5 year old learning Clojure is fascinating. I hope you write about that sometime.

[noxToken]

> However, when we talk to some of the kids coming to Repl.it from Scratch they often say something along the lines of Scratch is an "adult's idea of what kids might like". I think some kids want to feel like hackers and like they're doing "the real thing."

I teach a low-impact, almost impossible to fail programming elective to HS students. We start with a fork of Scratch, and we eventually move to Python. The above is generally the response of my students as well. Scratch is a nice, gentle introduction, but then it becomes more tedious clicking through categories, dragging-and-dropping, and maintaining an organized environment with larger assignments. I'm inclined to agree. Also transferring concepts from Scratch to a terminal language doesn't click for most students. I'm still working on bettering my lesson plans in that aspect.

I do want to counter with something positive about these visual implementations though. I think boot strapping the course would be 10 times harder with just a terminal language.

[Glench]

Hey, you should definitely check out Python Play, the games/graphics library @amasad mentioned: https://github.com/replit/play

It's uses similar language and a Scratch-like execution model, so you can do things like this:

    face = play.new_text('^.^', font_size=100)

    @face.when_clicked
    async def do():
        face.words = '*o*'
        await play.timer(seconds=1)
        face.words = '^.^'

[maitredusoi]

>>>However, when we talk to some of the kids coming to Repl.it from Scratch they often say something along the lines of Scratch is an "adult's idea of what kids might like". I think some kids want to feel like hackers and like they're doing "the real thing."<<< This is just one of the most impactful sentence I have ever heard, as I am trying to build a really simple flow programming interface.

[inertial]

> how to type and do basic math, I did it in clojure using Repl.it

Can you share the repl or add some more detail please on how was it better than traditional methods

[dannycastonguay]

Hey! Thanks for asking. I carry a Pixelbook around the house to read the news/answer emails and, although Linux is on it on, I just find it easier to browse to Repl.it.

Let's be clear that for a 5 year old, being able to substitute numbers in (+ 2 3) and seeing the results is displayed on the screen is pretty cool. And for my 3-year-old, just typing his name (after I tell him which keys to press) is magical.