[8A51C]

I think Scratch makes a great introduction to programming because of the playfull assets which are bundled with it, sprites, sounds, backgrounds etc. This significantly lowers the bar to making something productive and visually stimulating, something which I believe is necessary to engage when competing with modern games, phones etc.

There is no text based language (please correct me if I have missed one) that makes any attempt to bridge this gap by providing a library of assets on tap. Yes there are places you can find sprites etc, but they are not just there, included. I feel this has been the biggest stumbling block for my daughter moving on from Scratch. To produce something in a text based language that even comes close is so much more work, anything that is achievable just isn't stimulating enough.

We have looked at Roblox, I agree with the article this has potential, making a moving platform in an obby for example, but this hasn't stuck with her. We have had more traction with custom ents in Minecraft, creating in Blockbench then messing with the configs to alter the behaviour, but this is just Mineraft specific.

I should hope to do more with js/ts scripting in Minecraft, but using bedrock this is in it's infancy so there isn't much out there for inspiration, hacking around with or tutorials for her to look at herself. In this regard, D is no better a first language than any other.

[giancarlostoro]

One of my favorite professors was using Processing, which was confusing for some, but it really helped that the students got to visually see results.

I have to wonder if we allowed people to learn programming significantly better when RAD IDE languages were more common like VB6 and Delphi. Something about visually seeing what you're building vs just seeing text on a screen. I guess it would only affect SOME people learning to code this way, because we have plenty of brilliant minds who had even less than a terminal at one point or another.

[jrochkind1]

> Something about visually seeing what you're building vs just seeing text on a screen.

When i learned programming as a child, the programs i wrote just produced text on a screen -- but text on a screen was an actually encountered everyday UX on the Apple IIe or Commodore 64 too.

I think it does make a difference how quickly you see yourself as making something that could actually be useful, and it's maybe harder to do that in 2023.

[giancarlostoro]

I think everyone learns different, so maybe the biggest key is seeing something familiar to what you're used to seeing right before your eyes?

[growingkittens]

I found this while looking for the name of the (multiple) Minecraft mods that involve programming: https://mcreator.net/

It seems to be a Minecraft mod maker that simplifies the process of building a mod.

There's a page specifically about education: https://mcreator.net/education

[speeder]

The "Visual" series of IDEs used to exist. Also the "Builder" series from Borland.

It was the reason why Delphi (a kind of Visual Pascal Builder?) Was só stupidly popular. Same thing for Visual Basic.

I used to look down on then but now I realize they being gone is a bad thing.

[LeFantome]

Delphi still exists. So does Lazarus ( open source version ).

For BASIC, there is GAMBAS.

There is also OpenXava for Java.

The lack of popularity is not just because they do not exist.

[growingkittens]

We need another BASIC.

How far into Minecraft modding have you gotten?

[jacquesm]

JS and Python have taken up that mantle.