On Thu, 2010-08-26 at 07:16 +0100, Sean Miller wrote: > Personally, I think that half the reason people find computers boring > these days is that there isn't the "mystique" about them that there > was when I was growing up (the 80s)... you had a BBC Micro, your mate > had a Commodore 64... you argued about which was the better computer > and you programmed small apps "just to prove you could"... you bought > magazines with pages of code to type in to make a little cursor go > along the bottom of the screen with strange pixellated things at top > that were supposedly aliens... which, of course, would normally crash > somewhere along the way "Syntax error at line 34"... ah, the joy!! > > Now computers are "out of the box", I don't think people "have the > fire" for programming them - they're more interested in just using > them... - becoming a computer programmer is no more exciting (to your > average teenager) than becoming a TV engineer or a washing-machine > repairer... > > To make "IT interesting again" you would have to make "being a > programmer something special" again... and it's not, really, > anymore... > > Sean > Its interesting that you mention the BBC Micro (I was in the Vic 20 & C64 camp at the time). There was an interesting article on the BBC website about the BBC Micro being given "another lease of life by helping to educate (A Level) students in the art of rigorous programming."
The full article is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10951040 Dave Jones -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
