The past couple of years have seen an explosion of open source programming languages and utilities that are geared toward children. Many of these efforts are based around the idea that, since the days of BASIC, programming environments have become far too complex for untrained minds to wrap themselves around. Some toolkits aim to create entirely new ways of envisioning and creating projects that appeal to younger minds, such as games and animations, while others aim to recreate the “basic”-ness of BASIC in a modern language and environment.

via Linux.com :: Open source programming languages for kids.

Drag and drop programming? Things where you can actually “see” what your programming goes and what it does?

Yeah, I’m all for that.

The Digg comments for this article are serious gold – gems like “Bah, just start ’em on C++, tough learning curve but if they succeed they’ll be one of the best damned programmers ever, and if they don’t – well, I hear McDonalds is hiring…”

I Digg that. Pun intended.