Hi all,
A fair while ago I asked the community here advice as my 8yo lad wanted to experiment with programming: Old Post.
Thanks so much for all the words of wisdom - there’s still stuff we can explore in the replies.
Thought I’d just give a little update.
So I installed dual boot Linux Mint / OSX on an old intel MacBook Air (dual boot in case his homework/school stuff needs it, but he hasn’t used OSX much!).
It was much easier than I thought it’d be. Perhaps it’s just the hardware/OS choice, but I don’t consider myself to be ‘properly’ technical and it was a breeze. Perhaps the only difficult part was creating a bootable OSX restore disk just in case I destroyed the OS… it’s almost like Mac really don’t want you to be doing this.
He’s working his way through foundational courses on programming, in codeacademy, and using scratch as usual. So far, so good.
Is there an IDE you’d recommend that has some element of a tutorial to it?
Assuming your 8 year old wants to write a game (who doesn’t?!), I recommend grabbing a free copy of Pyxel.
Pyxel games are coded in Python, and has opinionated libraries for building games. It comes with a built-in sprite editor, map editor, and music editor.
The Pyxel tutorial ecosystem isn’t as mature as Scratch, or Microsoft’s Code.org, but it’s a strong next step for a kid who wants a bit more power from their code.
You can also host the games your 8 year old ceates on a static website, or in other easy sharing forms, if you’re so inclined.
The only thing Pyxel doesn’t include is a code editor. I heartily endorse the previous recommendations for VSCode or VSCodium.
While I’m a die-hard fan of Codium, doing the extra work to find plugins outside the Microsoft ecosystem, or point Codium into the Microsoft plugin ecosystem, probably isn’t the best use of your or your 8 year old’s time. But if you’re particularly privacy minded, you can easily use the Microsoft plugin ecosystem within Codium, by searching the Codium wiki pages for the two files that need modified.
I would definitely encourage finding and using the Microsoft published VSCode/VSCodium Python plugin pack, to support your 8 year old’s learning journey, if you go this route.
He currently really likes locally copying people’s games from Scratch and modifying them in funny ways which he calls ‘hacking’ lol. He’s having fun so I’m happy for him to do what he likes so long as it’s age appropriate.