Show HN: New visual language for teaching kids to code

420 points

3 years ago

Pickcode is a new language and editor for getting kids started with coding. The code editing experience is totally structured, where you select choices from menus rather than typing. I made Pickcode after experiences teaching kids both block coding (Scratch, App Inventor) and Python. To me, block coding is too far removed from regular coding for kids to make the connection. Pickcode provides a much clearer transition path for students to Python/JS/Java. Our target market is middle/early high school kids, and that’s who we’ve tested the product with during development.

On the site, you can do tutorials to make chatbots, animated drawings, and 2D games. We have a full Intro to Pickcode course, as well as an Intro to Python course where you make regular console programs with a regular text editor. There are 30 or so free lessons accessible with an account, and the rest are paywalled for $5/month.

For professional programmers, the editor is probably pretty frustrating to use (no vim keybindings!), but I hope it’s at least interesting to play with from a UI perspective. If you have kids aged 10-14, I’d love any feedback you have from trying it out with them. I love talking to users, reach out at [email protected]!

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