7/6/12

Programming for Kids - Maze Solution

Here's the solution I came up with for running the maze.

The logic is based on something I read in a Batman comic long ago: If you're stuck in a maze, keep your left hand on a wall and you'll eventually get out.  (The same logic works if you're in a series of tunnels, or a cave, or possibly even in an evil villain's lair.)

Programming for Kids

Lately I've been thinking about how to get my kids more interested in programming.  When I was a kid about the only free programming language was the version of Basic that came on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. Everything else either ran on a mainframe, or required purchasing a fancy compiler.

Nowadays there's a glut of languages.  It seems like the closest relation to Basic in the 21st century is Javascript.  It's an interpreted language, runs in a sandbox environment so you can't do much permanent harm, but powerful enough that you can create some pretty cool projects.

Looking around the Internet for kids programming projects, I found Blockly, a web-based graphical programming editor that converts to Javascript. One demo project: write a Blockly program that runs this maze.


Click here to see the solution that I came up with.