On 29/01/15 04:22, LumpHammer wrote:
On 28/01/2015 21:59, 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.


That's very non trivial and a very steep curve - the amount of effort
needed to get *anything* done is significant IMO having hacked on a
couple of apps.

It's rewarding to be able to write software that you can carry around
with you and show to friends etc. Unfortunately the learning curve for
Java on Android is not the easiest, but at least the tools (Eclipse ADK)
are free.