Learning to Code with a Boardgame

markmcb writes "While some of us cling tight to our memories of Apple-filled classrooms playing The Oregon Trail and driving our Turtle around in Logo, children today have many other ways to learn about the inner-working of computers and the code that drives them. Wired.com is running an interesting article about a boardgame in which players must use simple logic similar to that used in programming to get their skier down the mountain. From the article: 'Using basic math, players have to figure out which paths are open to them and then decide the fastest way to the finish line. The trick, however, is learning which paths are open to you using only programmer jargon like 'if (X==1)' then you can take the green path or 'while (X4) you can take the orange path,' where X is the roll of the die.'"

Comments

Bad Design

[jmlsteele]

I was told to never use a goto...

Re:Bad Design

[TheRealMindChild]

grep the linux kernel... you may wet yourself.

Re:Bad Design

[GeneralHorel]

out of fear or excitment

Actual squares from the game

[Radres]

"Job outsourced to India! Go directly to trade school, do not buy a house, do not get laid."

"High school reunion time! The same guy who kicked your ass every day in high school and barely passed wood shop laughs at you because he makes more than you as a plumber while you wasted 4 years at college. Go back 3 spaces."

Re:Actual squares from the game

[sgt scrub]

well, at least the "not getting laid" part didn't change.

Re:Actual squares from the game

[korbin_dallas]

Stop and read Slashdot. Skip a turn and write a reply to a topic.

Boss needs estimates NOW! Skip a turn and write the boss some time estimates.

Sidetrack! Your company moves your office so a VP could get a bonus this quarter. Skip a turn.

Design Review! Skip a turn.

Code Review! Skip a turn.

Weekly Meeting! Skip a turn.

Damn, no wonder I don't get any code written...

SkiFree!

[sonixtwo]

Maybe some kid will figure out how to finally get past that damn monster!!

Re:Why not build a robot??

[Surt]

Board games don't have to be boring. I made a boardgame of the new show 'Prison Break'. It comes with a metal shiv for each player, and only the winner walks away. Tell me that's boring!

Oregon Trail?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=05132003

Better Off Dead

[ellem]

$go (that way eq really_fast) ;

  if $something (%gets_in_way) {
     $turn ;
  } else {
     die print "You have crashed!" ;