Programming software for 12 year old?

Question

Looking for an introductary programming software program for my 12 year old. He is very good at the computer. Internet searching, can use Word and Excel. Now he would like to get into programming. I am ancient, used Fortran 77, Pascal, C++ and Visual SQL, but what do you get a 12 year old. I am sure he will surpase my abilities in a month or two if he can get something that makes sense and is interestng.

Answer 1

Get him Macromedia Flash. It will probably be one of the easiest ones to learn, and it is incredibly useful software in today's world. You can draw and animate with it too!

You can create pretty much anything with that program now. People pay good money for Flash programmers!
Download the free trial from the Adobe.com site

If he still wants it after the trial runs out, try getting a cheap full version on eBay.

Answer 2

Actually a great programming toy you can get him is those lego machines that you can build and program to move. They can work on basic or even ruby I believe and from there he could then go into Visual basic and into the .NET framework after that where he can then expand anywhere.

I believe if I had those legos when I was little I would have gotten into programming much much sooner than I did and who knows what could have happened. Besides, nothing it more rewarding than building something and making it come alive through a program you wrote.

If you don't want him having those toys, I would then strongly recommend visual basic. It is very english like, will help with basic control logic, if he does .NET he can get the compiler for free this month and will help him expand elsewhere.

Others may recommend C++ but the only thing that would trip up a 12 year old is the idea of pointers, references, virtual tables etc. VB is the best to start with for non programmers I find.

I have put a link to the toys I am talking about. Hope he enjoys!

Answer 3

Maybe Excel Visual Basic would be a good start - see Excel Help. The following is an example, probably too complicated but it shows some of what you can do (with horrible colours). My Excel is an old version. So, I don’t know what it is like with later SW.

http://freespace.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/whetsvb.xls

There are also examples of the same program in Fortran, C, Java and normal VB at my site.

Answer 4

logo(the language), i forget what the specific name is, but you write code to make a turtle draw lines. There really isn't much that would get a 12 yo really into programming, unless he doesn't mind sitting down with a book (technical one for beginners) and just working his way through that, but Java would probably be a good language to learn (which is more advanced then logo). And then you can probably teach him c++ (which is the best language out there) since you know it (or at least the basics).

Answer 5

Paintshop professional from Jasc utility comes bundled with Animation save, an common (yet fairly valuable) modifying gadget. in case you will discover an old version it is going to no longer be that costly (between £10 and £15). i understand that version 5 has the animation studio bundled, yet verify the later variations until eventually now you purchase. extra importantly it teaches physique by physique animation, and helps export in the hassle-free codecs to furnish a solid grounding if he does no longer become uninterested in it (there are places utilising the well-known variations as commercial techniques). Softpedia has a 30day loose trial of the popular version.