Being captivated by the article and diving deep into nostalgia, I just have to recommend an enlighting book about Basic that my parents bought me when I was a child, and that I think it fits perfectly to the topic in question.
Luca Novelli published in the 80s two books called “My first book about Basic” and “My first book about Computers” [1], which are specifically intended to introduce computers and programming to children. After an introduction to algorithms and flow diagrams, the book dedicates a full page to each (GW)Basic instruction, providing an easy-to-understand explanation and -even more important- a small code example (~10 to ~50 lines) in the form of a game.
This means that the whole book is a compendium of interesting games (guess the animal, guess my age, pick a number) that slowly build up knowledge without being boring or pushy, and gives the child tools to build his own games. It may look outdated, but programming hasn’t changed that much since K&R C, so most of the concepts are still relevant today.
Sadly, the few page scans I could find are in portuguese or spanish, but they will serve as an example of the pedagogical approach. I hope anyone interested can find an English copy on Amazon, as it is IMHO an excellent way to teach & learn programming.
[1] “Two children, a dog, and a personal computer explore the history, concepts, and uses of computers, identifying such aspects as binary systems, computer languages, programming, and memory.” https://www.amazon.com/My-First-Book-About-Computers/dp/0914...
Instructions, strings and numbers https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/tc/2013/10/09/PA0900055...
FLOW DIAGRAMS — AND instruction https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLhzcb3WkAEVrF3.jpg
IF THEN GOTO instructions https://cdn.wallapop.com/images/10420/39/59/__/c10420p196760...
LIST and LOAD instructions https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/tc/2013/10/09/PA0900075...
Basic and Binary https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/libros-segunda-mano-inf...
More: https://twitter.com/eduo/status/782934202572472320 http://www.lucanovelli.info/2015/10/07/amici-lettori/

I coded many interesting things in QBasic in my childhood, way before the Internet era: a point-and-click GUI like windows 3.x, a compression format that I thought was marvelous. Later in my life I found I had “invented” Run-Length Encoding, haha.

user:	maurom
created:	April 10, 2017
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