9yr old kid wants to learn programming, what's the best language to get him started?
OS doesn't matter - I can do Windows, Linux, etc.
I'd prefer free (as in beer) software.
The language itself is important, but it also matters if there are good simple tutorials available, etc.
I can help him quite a bit, I'm not a full time programmer, but over a number of years I wrote code in maybe half a dozen languages. I can still code fairly decently in PHP.
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Basic. I learnt it at 9 years old, and it is easy enough to get into. The graphics libraries means you can create shapes on screen and program something visual. You also have for loops and conditions. It is a procedural language so you get right into programming without having to learn OOP concepts.
10 do this
20 if this goto 40
30 goto 10
40 some more code
This is a lot easier than having to explain to a 9 year old what a class is or a data type.
While some people might also recommend games like Minecraft which has a programming element. I would say there is no good reason for a 9 year old not to jump right into a real programming model.
I'm going to answer quick before this gets closed: Logo! It's visual and easy to learn, and can help him practice procedural thinking, breaking repeated tasks into reusable methods, and even recursion. He'll have lots of time later to use Objective C and C# and PHP and all those other boring languages we adults use. Let him make some kick-ass spirals with Logo first.
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