On 29/01/2015 04:31, Rod Speed wrote:
LumpHammer wrote
Rod Speed wrote
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.

Really depends on what you see him doing code wise.

You can do quite a bit in VBA in Office but that isnt going to be of
any interest to him if say he wants to write games etc and many kids
do want to do stuff like that.

With kids its mostly about what they find interesting to code
that determines what they are likely to find useful code wise.

He might be interested in doing apps for android phones if he has one.

If he has any Android phones or tablets I'd suggest looking at Android
development as well.

Yeah, that's what matters coding wise, being able to do something useful.

It's rewarding to be able to write software that you can carry around
with you and show to friends etc.

Yeah, and likely more rewarding than writing games currently.

If he was mine, I'd get him an android phone or
tablet if he didn’t have one, they don’t cost much.

Unfortunately the learning curve for Java on Android is not the easiest,

True.

but at least the tools (Eclipse ADK) are free.