[AlanYx]

I don't think a text representation is intrinsically a problem, but I think Alan Kay was right that the level of abstraction has to be in line with children's intellectual development. Whether one uses Squeak Smalltalk (textual coding) or Scratch 3 (visual coding), the code to implement a Tetris clone for example is surprisingly simple and accessible to kids, because the underlying abstraction is pretty concrete.

I don't think the model language taught in the linked article is going to work for most kids, because the level of abstraction is too high. I'd guess that even most non-CS undergraduates would struggle with the double recursion implementation of Towers of Hanoi that he presents (even with the comments he also adds; without the comments I'd venture most non-CS undergrads would have serious trouble figuring it out).

[jvvw]

I think typing skill does matter with text representation. I've seen a lot of 7-9 year olds who might be able to cope with text-based languages conceptually just get frustrated by the slowness of typing when introduced to them. Which doesn't mean it isn't impossible for them to learn to type at the same time but they have to be much more motivated.

Syntax and other errors in many language are also really frustrating and I've seen children give up on text-based languages in frustration with all the errors they get (especially when they make lots of typing mistakes!)

[martyalain]

I agree with you. Obviously more explanations should be given around the following examples. This page should be considered as a skeleton used for a guided exploration. More examples from here: http://lambdaway.free.fr/lambdawalks.