[tseabrooks]

I'm a biracial Software Engineer that grew up 'poor'. I think the single biggest reason I went into technology is because my parents, through some sort of time bending super sight, saw fit to save scrape, and scrimp so that I could have a computer at a very young age (9 years old started with Apple IIe in 92ish, it was already outdated and we quickly bought a nicer computer).

This happened right before my fifth grade teacher sat me in the back of the class and let me play with the 1 classroom computer with the BASIC manual because I was 'gifted' and always finished my work early. These two events provided tools and a framework for learning that many minority students probably didn't have.

[erikpukinskis]

I wonder... as more and more kids of all economic groups have smartphones, or even if they can't afford a service plan, an iPod Touch or similar.... it seems inevitable that in the next decade or so almost all kids will have access to some form of "personal" computer from childhood. I can't help but think that would change the representation in the software industry.

Makes me think that getting really good programming games and dev environments on SmartPhones is a great idea.

[lsc]

>Makes me think that getting really good programming games and dev environments on SmartPhones is a great idea.

I dono... I know I grew up with hand-me-down computers until late highschool. through the first half of high school, I used a tandy model 100 TRS-80 laptop. Really, if you wanted the thing to do anything besides just take notes, you'd have to program it yourself.

At another point I had a vic-20. No disk drives; if you wanted to play space invaders, you had to type it in to the basic interpretor.

The fact that modern computers are useful without programming, I think, is something of a disadvantage. The fact that casual programming is discouraged on most smartphone platforms is an extreme disadvantage. I remember doing most of the math homework I did on that model 100; I'd write some basic program to do it for me, then type in the questions. The iphone has several orders of magnitude more power than that trs-80 I lugged around, but just getting the goddamn program on an iphone would probably have presented a bar that was too high for me to bother with at the time. The thing was, writing the program in basic was faster and easier than doing all the math problems by hand. (the method I was taught involved a lot of extremely frustrating "guess and check") If writing the program was more work than doing the problems by hand, I'd probably have done the problems by hand (or more likely, not done them at all.)

So yeah, I guess if by 'good dev environment' you mean 'easy dev environment' I agree. But I really think the focus for smartphones needs to be on lowering the barrier to entry.

ROM BASIC was not a "good" dev environment, but god damn, it was easy. Not only was it easy to learn, it was really, really easy to get booted in to, and easy to see the output of your program. nearly every computer built came with it built in. Often booting in to ROM BASIC was easier than booting the "real" operating system.

[tseabrooks]

Maybe but a lot of these new devices every kid has can't be 'programmed' the way my Apple IIe could be. The early computers were devices that could write software for themselves and the current 'post-pc' (I hate this term but it's all I had) devices don't really enable you to write code using them for themselves.

[brg]

I would argue that the inclusion of Applesoft BASIC in the Apple ][ line was the most beneficial thing to happen to the tech field in the 80s. Perhaps at the time it was simply a way to get traction from homebrew hobbyists. But the impact was immense. Spending nights on end in front of green text to type in "Home Computing" programs was the first steps taken by the many of the greatest programmers I've ever worked with.

Newer tech products are designed to be consumable only. They are media devices, ends to themselves and no longer tools of exploration. They do a great job at making peoples lives more enjoyable, but its with regret I see kids unable to begin unlocking how they work simply by typing in 10 PRINT "HELLO"; 20 GOTO 10.