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Domain: livewires.org.uk

Stories and comments across the archive that link to livewires.org.uk.

Comments · 8

  1. For younger children... by CustomDesigned · · Score: 3, Informative · on Core Python Programming
    I use LiveWires. I teach a high school programming class with 7th graders. The adult oriented tutorial is a little too steep for them. They move along just fine with the LiveWires course. Also, the example projects are games. :-)

    An interactive (has an immediate mode prompt) language like Python is very helpful for first learning. BASIC used to fill that role, but I like starting with structured concepts. Kids have no problem "getting" that indentation marks blocks.

    Some experts hate python because while the grammar is "context free", the lexing isn't. The grammar is defined in terms of INDENT and OUTDENT taking the place of '{' and '}' (or BEGIN and END). However, whether a given indent is an INDENT or OUTDENT depends on context. So you can't use a traditional lexical analyzer when programmatically generating/modifying python code. You have to translate leading whitespace to INDENT and OUTDENT based on lexical context when parsing, and translate INDENT and OUTDENT to the appropriate amount of leading whitespace when pasting code blocks.

    Personally, I don't find that this is a problem. Sure 'lex' doesn't work out of the box, but the custom lexing code is pretty trivial. And the indentation sure is intuitive. Maybe that means I'm not an expert.

  2. Re:Wrong question by martalli · · Score: 2, Informative · on Teaching Primary School Students Programming?
    You're absolutely right. More important than the language is an appropriate curriculum. I have never had the opportunity to use it, but the LiveWire curriculum was developed for a preteen/teenage audience for use at summer camps in England. According to the webpage, it was designed as an introduction to programming. This may be directed more at children on the older side of the range the questioner asked. However, it has worked well for them over several years, and the whole curriculum appears freely available.

    http://www.livewires.org.uk/python

  3. Python w/ Livewires by sunami · · Score: 1 · on A Brief History of Programming Languages?

    At my school, we are learning python, with the help of the livewires package. It's great for beginner programers, as it's taught for the computer science 1 class.

  4. Re:Python by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative · on Introducing Children to Computers?

    Python is a wonderful choice: it is easy to learn & quick to code in, but can be scaled up to larger projects. For the younger children who need to understand even more basic computer concepts, it can also be scaled down:

    PyLogo is Logo implemented in Python

    Guido van Robot is similar, but so much cooler.

    Finally, livewires has an excellent Python tutorial.

  5. Check out LiveWires for an example by Grab · · Score: 1 · on Electronics Projects for 12-Year-Olds?

    A friend of mine runs a workshop called LiveWires which is basically doing what you're talking about. It's a Christian group, but if you subtract the religion then you'll probably have something useful. At least it's worth dropping them an email to ask questions.

    LiveWires link

    Grab.

  6. Pygame, Python, etc. by dstone · · Score: 1 · on Teaching Kids to Make Games?

    Being nine years old with an aptitude for math and computers should allow your son to grok much of Python and especially the Pygame modules for easy game writing in Python. Pygame runs well in both Linux and Win32 (based on the SDL libraries, also free). There are plenty of short, easy examples of graphics and sound and animation using Pygame.

    LiveWires has some Python courses specifically for non-programmers and young people, some with a slant toward games.

    You might also look at Guido van Robot, a Python-based robot programming environment for children. Maybe it won't allow for 'real' game writing, but the concepts seem sound and it might be a more gentle intro.

  7. Depends on the level of computer literacy ... by Circuit+Breaker · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Game Creation Software for Kids?

    But I'd recommend having a look at the livewires material. They teach writing a few simple games in Python in a short time.

    As for taking it home, Greg McMillan's great Python Installer can make that happen.

    And it's all open source and works on Unix/Linux as well.

  8. Re:Programming is Too Hard. It's solvable though. by Paul+Wright · · Score: 2 · on Microsoft Is Indoctrinating Children, Shouldn't We?
    I'd like someone to put together a nice enviroment for beginning programmers. Base it on Python and gtk, so it's portable between Windows and Unix. Use Glade so people can start off drawing what they want their program to look like, then write bits of Python to make it work. Throw in a really good canvas widget, so it's easy to start drawing things and get things moving on the screen without worrying about expose events and redraws. Then write the book "Learn to program with Python", that takes beginners who've only ever used computers before by the hand and leads them through the delights of making them do your bidding.

    We've done something a bit like this. It's based on Tk rather than gtk, but other than that it's more or less what you want: a simple canvas to draw on and a bunch of worksheets for beginners to programming. It was done for LiveWires, a Christian computer camp. You can get our old (1999) stuff here. We did some extra things for the 2000 holiday this summer which we've not released yet. They'll be released under a BSD-ish licence soon: I'm in the middle of writing a mail to our webmaster to get him to put them up. Keep watching the LiveWires site or mail me if you can't wait for us to sort it out.