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Re: "I am looking for a self-contained programming environment..."
zx spectrum retrocomputer. It was intended for kids, and it is quite good. It has BASIC interpreter in ROM, which is not bad at all.
Jan 14 · 4 months ago
If you are thinking about some fun programming platform not only for microcontrollers but for rPi/old_netbook for kids look at:
There is Scratch too, but it's a little bit boring IMHO.
i am not sure about the hardware, maybe only vms exist, but i really advice to look at uxn and uxntal or tal. it is not only a forth inspired language and virtual machine, but also a whole community of inspiring creatives, lots of beautifully made programs, that are both engaging and inspiring to do something own. because doing something own doesn't feel not doable, it feels tangible and possible.
and if forth feels not suitable to you (you mentioned lisp is probably not what you are looking for at this point) i would argue that to a kid writing in assembly for 6502 (if someone explains what is going on) is easier and more engaging, than in something like c or python. well, real machines have specifics, but uxn (and any forth) is sort of abstract assembly and i saw how youngsters enjoy assembly much more than anything high level. they enjoy feeling that they know whole language, and there are no layers between them and machine, they are able to speak machine language and translators are not needed. this feeling is very empowering and it educates to understand how machines work.
so later, when working with something high level like c++ or java, same people can imagine what their code compiles to, and the feeling which hintn how to write something hints by considering knowledge of low level processes, there is unconscious expectation that this should compile to that, which not all programmers have. probably that feeling is not common in those who started with js or python.
⛵️ olav [OP] · Jan 19 at 12:52:
Cool that you mention UXN. I have dabbled a little with it, but don't think my youngsters can appreciate it yet. Our little coding group has only one timeslot per week, we hardly manage to fit it in. They are not yet ignited on their own, it's more like keeping the flame on.
But again, thank you for suggesting it. Maybe we can do the UXN tutorial together.
— compudanzas.net/uxn_tutorial.gmi
I am looking for a self-contained programming environment on a microcontroller (ESP32 or similar) with a small touch screen, for kids to learn coding, without the need to have a PC or tablet. Nothing too esoteric or low level. I was wondering if such a thing exists or if I need to build it myself.