On 28/01/2015 21:48, Ferretygubbins wrote:
I know this is OT but I rather suspect that some of you will be able to
help.

Boy1 (13) is interested in learning how to write code and so I would
like to set him up with a toolkit for his PC (Windows) unfortunately my
programming days are somewhat in the past and restricted to MUMPS which
was archaic even back then. Has anyone any suggestions for a suitable
platform? As ever the cheaper the better.

Have a look at Lazerus its an open source clone of Ebarcadero's[1]
Delphi development environment.

http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/

It gives you all the tools in one place, a proper integrated development
environment, code editor, object inspector, drag and drop interface
building, debugger etc. The language is based on a greatly extended
object Pascal with a very elegant class library based on the original
Borland VCL (designed by Anders Hejlsberg who was later poached by MS to
develop C#)

[1] they bought Borland's software tools business


--
Cheers,

John.

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