"Nick Burns, the company computer guy says, "Mooooooove!"

And let me guess, you use AOL? *snort*. Do you want me to save your game of Minesweeper here? Problem solved.

*beep beep*

It's those goofs over in Organizational Development. They make you guys look like braniacs over there. I'm outta here.

Oh, by the way, you're welcome!


BakerStreet hopes Tova watches SNL and doesn't think I'm being a jerk, lol...

Uh, you lost me at "Mooooove."

A bit late but I'd recommend Squeak (http://www.squeak.org/) as a good place for a kid to start. It has a bunch of features that you want in a "complete" learning environment for a child without the rank stupidity of BASIC and with more expressiveness than LOGO.

Came across Microsoft's Coding4Fun page and thought you might be interested. Has lots of beginner articles. Also here is a Kid's Programming Language that might be of interest.

No idea how I screwed that up. I'm hoping posting this one will fix the bottom of the page so I can edit. If not, delete my post and I'll repost.

*EDIT* LOL, wow, that took a bit of fishing (sorry JU) but I was able to target their asp from here and edit it without the button, lol. Sorry for breaking your page. (Delete this if you like.)

Thanks Bakerstreet....I will give him the web sites and have them check them out.

And sunwukong I will have him check that out as well.....

He'll be driving me nuts with this I can tell already!

His computer seems to squeal whenever the hard drive is seeking...does that make sense?

Oh, yeah. It makes lots of sense. It sounds like one of the read heads on the hard drive is rubbing against the platter. Which is a recipe for a dead hard drive, quickly. Does it sometimes have problems starting programs or opening files from the drive that it used to be able to open fine?

We go to the start menu to turn off the computer, hit shut down, but it doesn't do a thing just stays on. The screen doesn't dim or anything, even when we hit the power on button (the actual one you push to start the computer) it doesn't shut off. We have to unplug the computer to get it off.

Heh. Sounds like it's just feeling it's age. Sometimes, the non-responsiveness to the powerswitch is an OS problem (and I can't remember where to set it ... ) and would be fixed by reloading it. Other times ... it's a sign that the motherboard is about to go TU on you. Combined with the hard drive squeal ...

it's a sign that the motherboard is about to go TU on you. Combined with the hard drive squeal ...

Well if it happens I hope it happens soon....it is only 2 months old.

Does it sometimes have problems starting programs or opening files from the drive that it used to be able to open fine?

Nope I don't think so...just the loud ANNOYING squeal....sounds like a jet engine revving up in there.

I would suggest getting him into C and C++. Those languages compile down to fast code. The first thing he should understand though is that there is a lot of people out there wanting to do the same thing, so buckle down and develop good skills in school, math, etc. I am a developer myself. Developing is fun, makes good money and is not all fun. He should know its hard work. I enjoy it, but IT IS hard work. Many times spending countless hours doing many things that I don't really like. There are things, like testing, software requirements, talking w/the client about what is needed, countless hours of debugging the same thing over and over. Another thing he should know is that there isn't any glory in it. No one becomes famous for making a game. I have several friends who make and own their own companies making games. No one knows their names. Yes they know the game, but no one knows who made it. If he thinks he'll get popular or be cool if he makes a game, ask him who made Halo. He'll have no clue. I code in about 10 languages myself. C, C++, Java, Pascal, COBOL, etc etc etc... I truely like coding for coding. I often got bored of games and coded instead. If he likes gaming, and wants to create the games himself, he should realize that creating games and playing games are much different. Like cars... just because you like driving cars a lot doesn't mean you like fixing them and building them. You might... and its very possible. But he should understand the difference. AND I'm sure he'll get to that point sometime in his life. Again.. let me stress that there are a lot of people out there wanting to do the same thing he wants. He may end up just programming business applications. Anyway.. enough of my babble. Pass on those things to him. I know what I'm talking about.. I've been coding since I've been about 12.

I sould suggest not listening to DoS. Nothing is going to discourage your child more than spending months making programs in a dos window that don't do anything he wants to do. Kids don't have the attention span for it. When he is 13 or 14, especially after spending a couple of years working with other things, he'd probably be able to appreciate the complexity.

I would agree with BakerStreet there and what was previously said. Modding a game is fun and your child can see the results. Play them too. Morrowind and its sequel Oblivion has a nice construction set which you can make plugins with. From new characters and items to monsters to new dungeons. Learn how to make 3d stuff, how to add scripts. While keeping it fun.

Here is a link to a good resource. Link It's a wiki, basically an online collaborative where users can edit pages. It's built to show people how to use the construction set and explain features. It also shows you step by step how to build a tutorial dungeon. It goes through the various processes, from the layouts to adding treasures to putting in monsters.

Later on ( a few years if interest still persists ) consider something like Visual Basic for a first computer language, many tutorials and help. Plus you can make applications/programs/games that run in windows.

All the computer interest and programming experience should also payoff when it comes to college. Getting a headstart there!

Thank you Supreme Shogun...we will check out the link!

I learned how to code around that age, and I wrote mostly games, so it can be done. I learned GW-BASIC at the time, but I would suggest starting him on C. The best C book is actually written by the original authors of the language itself. I have it at home, and I will write the particulars when I get there.

The best C book is actually written by the original authors of the language itself. I have it at home, and I will write the particulars when I get there.

That'd be great thanks. Right now he is ready to be learning some sort of programming code. I got a few things mentioned above for him...the games anyway, and he has them mastered...so I think he's ready for the next step.

One thing I can suggest, don't bother with visual basic. C is harder, but it would teach more on how computer works and most of programming needs are on C or its varieties and not visual basic.