Is it possible to run simple programs on a PC

WLM21

In the 1980's, as part of an engineering degree I learnt Fortran IV as well as a bit of BASIC.

When the BBC computer came out I managed to use my BASIC knowledge, with a bit of top-up learning to write programs for the kids, to help with their school work.

Learning tables and maths proved popular, with different sound effects for a right or wrong answer. Even learning French vocab was quite easy, with the help of the BBC Micro

Now our kids have their own kids I was wondering whether it is possible to use a normal desktop pc in the same sort of way. Of course there are probably hundreds of free online sites, but a bespoke learning program might be good.

I learnt HTML a few years ago too (using Youtube only) and managed to set up several websites, so I'm sure if I need to learn another language to do some teaching stuff, I could do

thanks !

esuhl

If you have MS Office, you could use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), which allows you to run fairly complex scripts, create new functions, etc.

If you can think of something that, effectively, uses a spreadsheet as a user-interface (say, a multiple choice maths quiz or whatever), then VBA in Excel is easy to learn and fairly powerful.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vba

I asked a similar question recently here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5463344

From that thread, it sounds like you might also be interested in LiveCode (which is supposed to be easy-to-learn and lets you write apps for Windows, Linux, Android, etc.).

LiveCode used to be a paid-for product, but a while back they released an open-source version. If you use the open-source version then you can only release software you write with an open-source licence. If you want to sell your software you need to pay for the premium version.

LiveCode premium: http://livecode.com/
LiveCode free: https://livecode.org/

Python is a cross-platform scripting language that also seems relatively easy and powerful. It seems very popular.

https://www.python.org/

Hope that helps :-)

Tanarif

In my opinion, everything is going to websites. I'd definitely consider learning more HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and web-based scripting languages.

forgotmyname

QBasic included in older versions of windows and the exe file will run on win 7.

I used to use that a lot.

Teaching the grandkids? Arduino and Raspberry Pi's have a large following with lots of stuff out there.

Neil_Jones

WLM21 wrote: »

Now our kids have their own kids I was wondering whether it is possible to use a normal desktop pc in the same sort of way. Of course there are probably hundreds of free online sites, but a bespoke learning program might be good.

You can download the Free version of Visual Studio and use it to learn things like Visual Basic, C++ and others. Free for individual use, no end of tutorials online.
https://www.visualstudio.com/products/visual-studio-community-vs

I learnt HTML a few years ago too (using Youtube only) and managed to set up several websites, so I'm sure if I need to learn another language to do some teaching stuff, I could do

Python is a fairly simple language to get going with. Bear in mind once you learn the basics of one language they transfer fairly easily to the other languages, so you can pretty much hit the ground running.

Samsonite1

I say Python too - it is available for most machines and devices and is very widely used especially for teaching programming. Very quick and easy to achieve things with it.

paddyrg

Python is sound, also have a look at livecode which has a very plain-language syntax and you can make apps targetting PC, Android, etc simply

hd216

forgotmyname wrote: »

QBasic included in older versions of windows and the exe file will run on win 7.

I used to use that a lot.

Teaching the grandkids? Arduino and Raspberry Pi's have a large following with lots of stuff out there.

Now there's a blast from the past - used to love playing Gorillas!

Definitely second the Arduino and Raspberry Pi mention - being able to interact with the outside world with simple electronics can make the programming side of things a bit more exciting!