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Date   : Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:28:02 +0200
From   : anders.carlsson@... (Anders Carlsson)
Subject: BBC News - Retro computers: programmable computers

F. Haroon wrote:

> It's a shocking thought that programming might not be not taught in 
> schools any more

Surely those students who are interested in computers can take a class in 
programming, just that it isn't spoonfed to everyone? I can only speak for 
my own education (in Sweden apparently, so it may be different in the UK) 
but as far as I remember, we had zero obligatory classes in programming or 
even operating a computer. I took them myself rather than studying German or 
art, but never was even brief understanding of how a computer works part of 
the general education. That relates to a period between 1988-1994.

Besides already when the first Macintosh and IBM PC arrived, people began to 
grunt about these don't boot into Basic anymore which makes it a bigger task 
to get going with programming. Imagine that, a precursor from 1984 
describing the death of broad scale hobbyist programming. Certainly anyone 
really interested in programming could obtain environments also on a Mac or 
PC, but how would they become interested if the system didn't immerse them 
in it from the beginning?

Anyway, I think the web makes a lot of kids interested. Yes, I know HTML is 
not "real" programming but those who like to understand how a web page works 
will find there is code behind the layout. As they progress, they will find 
JavaScripts, server scripts, Flash and so on. It may not be as immediate as 
good old 8-bit Basic, but many of our friends just typed in listings without 
even thinking twice what each command might do. To them it could just as 
well have been runes they entered, as long as the program made any imprint 
to the screen.

Best regards

-- 
Anders Carlsson
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