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by mysterydip 2027 days ago
I have an idea for a simple language similar to basic but using emojis to represent functions and variables (really putting the "symbolic" in basic), with click or drag n drop from a toolbox rather than pure typing so everything is available at the start.

This would be a toy language designed for to introduce the world of programming to those who are learning to read. So for example, ⭕5 would draw a circle of size 5 where the cursor currently is. I have a page of notes for implementation but haven't made time to try it out yet.
3 comments
hugs 2027 days ago
I started working on a similar idea, called "Wildcard"... The idea was to create a lower cost alternative to Lego Mindstorms for programming simple robots. So "⬆5" would tell a robot to move forward 5 rotations. The other idea I was playing with was to remove the need to type at a keyboard... instead, a child would have a deck of cards with all the syntax they'd need, then they'd lay out their program out on a table or floor, and then use a camera + computer vision to read in the program.

The idea was if we issued one robot to each child, it would be cheaper to program the robot with a camera and deck of "code cards" than to also have to give budget for giving them a tablet or chromebook, too.

Here's my original proof of concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSOfMSS9aFY

And the code is up on GitHub: https://github.com/hugs/wildcard

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leetcrew 2027 days ago
your idea (and hugs's) sound a lot like a pictographic version of netlogo's turtle programming. I believe netlogo is open source, so maybe you could just write a frontend that picks a nice subset of the netlogo functions and maps emojis to them?
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hugs 2026 days ago
That's almost where I'm stuck. I was going down a path where Wildcard would "simply" transpile to JavaScript and inherit JS semantics... But yeah, it's so close to Logo, I couldn't decide if I should transpile to Logo instead.
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enriquto 2027 days ago
do you think this is clearer in any way than "circle 5" ?

for one, it looks harder to type just with a keyboard

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mysterydip 2027 days ago
for the reason that my preschool kids can identify a circle from a picture but not the words typed, yes (which is where this is targeted). This wouldn't be programmed from a keyboard (which also is difficult for that age), rather a toolbox would have all the commands available and you would just tap or click or drag them to the program.
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