Show HN: PickCode – An educational coding environment for students after Scratch
📰 Hacker News · csmeyer
Learn to code with PickCode, a visual programming environment for students after Scratch, and create chatbots, designs, and 2D games
Action Steps
- Explore PickCode's features and sample programs
- Create a simple chatbot using PickCode's visual language
- Design a 2D game using PickCode's game engine
- Experiment with PickCode's visual design tools
- Provide feedback on PickCode's current version and suggest features for future development
Who Needs to Know This
Educators and students can benefit from PickCode as a learning tool to introduce programming concepts in an engaging and interactive way
Key Insight
💡 PickCode aims to lower the barrier to entry for coding and enable students to create projects they're proud of quickly
Share This
🚀 Introducing PickCode, a visual programming environment for students after Scratch! 🤖 Create chatbots, designs, and 2D games with ease #PickCode #CodingForAll
Key Takeaways
Learn to code with PickCode, a visual programming environment for students after Scratch, and create chatbots, designs, and 2D games
Full Article
PickCode is designed for use on desktop and tablet, and supports creating chatbots, visual designs, and 2D games. There is plenty of functionality missing - you can't add media to games for instance, but the current version shows off the foundation of what I'm aiming at. I taught myself to code using MIT's App Inventor, so I have an enormous respect for block based languages like App Inventor, Scratch, Snap!, MakeCode, etc. PickCode is my attempt at adding options for students who want to learn more about programming without making the jump to text, or as an alternative to block coding for beginners coming to programming at an older age. The visual language is meant to lower the barrier to entry to coding but the far more important aspect for me is giving students the ability to make things they're proud of as quickly as possible. A JS/Python API for controlling the chatbot and game engine are in the works. As of now, there are sample programs to play with and
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