Alyssa's First Application

My 13 year old daughter, Alyssa, has shown a little more interest in the computer than her older sister and she seemed like she might be a good candidate for pulling into the world-o-programming so I ran down to the company store the other day and bought her a copy of VC#.  She dutifully installed it and then said, “so what does this do?”

“You can write your own programs!”

After about 3 minutes of explaining to her what a program is (can you believe that someone who has been using a computer for years doesn't know what a program is...I guess I'm supposed to consider this a good thing) I opened up C# and created a simple winform app.  I created a button and when you clicked the button it displayed a message box.  Cool!

We compiled and ran it and it worked!  She was minorly impressed.

I then added a textbox to the winform and set the message in the dialog box to the text entered in the textbox.  She was more impressed!  And with a tear in my eye she pulled the laptop from my lap and she wanted to do something.

That is where it all went downhill.

She looked over the toolbox quickly and dragged a datagrid control onto her winform.  It was sized about 5 pixels by 5 pixels ... so it basically looked like an unintelligable tic-tac-toe game.  With a little help from me she got it sized so that it was semi-intelligable.

“What do I do with it?” she asks.

“Well, you should have a dataset that it is bound to, but we don't have a database...we'll just create a DataTable real quick.“

So I started trying to explain tables and columns and rows and types while I re-grabbed the laptop from her lap and started manually filling in a DataTable and...

...someone turned the TV on.

DataSets couldn't compete with Kim Possible.

While she basically ignored me I created 2 columns and 3 rows of data about pets and after a couple compile errors I managed to get something up and running.  She nodded over in my direction and said, “yeah, cool Dad,“ which was her polite way of saying “whatever.“

My dreams of coming home to my daughter meeting me at the door with news of the latest feature she added to her super-gizmo application were slowly dying.  I was hoping at least one of my children would become an asocial nerd.

But then it dawned on me!  I'll get her a book!

Stay tuned...

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  The way I got hooked into programming (and we are talking about 8th grade, dawn of time, when Basic was barely available) was the idea of creating a "choose your own adventure" game based on random number generation.
  
  If you can't get them through utility, get them through gaming. ;-)

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  There are lots of games out there that you can't compete with. But you can make a game that is more personalized. Maybe like a game of memory but with pictures of her and her friends. Then she can share it with her friends and may keep her attention and willingness to improve it/add features.
  
  Another this is many kids are starting to have their own web pages. If she learns some programming, she can have the coolest one around.
  
  Good Luck

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  I understand you, I tried the same approach with my brother and that's why he became a cook :-)
  
  Not only will frustrate her but it will create a great aversion to everything geek.
  
  Now, grab an old copy of quickbasic and after installing it start with this:
  
  10 cls
  20 print "Hello Alyssa!"
  
  Then, go with IF and FOR samples about simple things like printing her friend's names and so.
  
  That will make her experience more pleasant for sure.

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  NO NO NO
  
  The only true way to teach a kid to program is through LOGO. All else is heresay ;)
  
  But seriously - Logo teaches procedural programming, recursion and other advanced concepts in a way that even a 10 year old can understand. It is accessible and fun - the results are very visual. Highly recommended!

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2004
  One word: MSAgent
  My 6 year old loves it. Get all 4 characters and now you have drama.

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2004
  LOL. I have 3 daughters myself...oldest 7....it's probably a good thing that she isn't into programming at that age. i imagine if she is in front of the computer screen all of the time she won't have a social life and she won't date when she get's older.
  
  hey wait a minute. maybe i should get my daughters into programming ;)
  
  -Mathew Nolton

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2004
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 26, 2009
  PingBack from http://castironbakeware.info/story.php?title=matt-powell-alyssa-s-first-application

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2009
  PingBack from http://toenailfungusite.info/story.php?id=9306