Strictly speaking HTML5 is a markup language, not a programming language. In particular (not counting JavaScript), my understanding is that it is not Turing-complete. JavaScript can be used for learning and casual programming, but it still has the issue that you need to start a browser, and it won't work if you need to, say, convert all your FLAC files to OGG. For that, you need something like python. (Incidentally, I have tried to do this in shell script, but it becomes extremely complicated if the file names have spaces in them.)

apt-get is really easier than searching the web. apt-get update && apt-get upgrade will update all the software on your system, and apt-get install python3 will install python 3, no questions asked. No need to open a web browser, search for python 3, find the appropriate download for your system, download it, and then run the installer. Also, installing from the repository is safer, as there are cryptographic checks to make sure the software comes from a trusted source.

I wasn't saying that Gentoo is easier to use; I was saying that if you have a working Gentoo system, it comes with a compiler, as the system would not function without it.

In any case, I believe that, in the modern world, all children should be exposed to computer programming at some point.

+1. Honestly Javascript is a horrible first language. I'd honestly prefer a good C or C++ interpreted one where you could add and change code while it was running, yeah it runs slower but wouldn't need a lot of complicated steps or programs to get it running. I suppose that's why Ruby or Python are more popular... or Awk :)

Hmmm this reminds me that a huge amount of software has hints and flags built in that tell you what they do, so you don't have to memorize everything, nor do you have to use a bunch of drop downs and checkboxes.

As a quick example, let's say i wanted to list contents of a directory and subdirectories...

[code] ls -laR [/code]

and to figure out what those mean, simply using the -h or --help flag will print out everything that it accepts and how it accepts it, letting you quickly get on with your life. So using apt-get requires little more than a -h to have reminders of what the commands are and how to use them, so WHY they are said to be so hard to use i couldn't tell you...

And let's not forget man files and man -k functionality! Those are seriously underrated, especially if you are not on the internet and can't use google :P I recall finding it especially useful to use man files for C/C++ functions as quick reminders of how i'm suppose to call clib functions.

as for the ls flags, i'll put them here...

[code] -l use a long listing format (file details)
-a, --all do not ignore entries starting with .
-R, --recursive list subdirectories recursively [/code]

I believe most of them are, and I also believe that they shouldn't. Really, there's a real push to try to get more people into STEM, and frankly I'd rather have people pushing for higher salaries for teachers, fewer work hours for doctors, that kind of stuff.

"Golden Age" is always kinda subjective. Most people regard it as a time that applied to them; for some it is before windows, some people like the early 90's era while others have fully grasped onto the last 7 years. I miss a lot about the old days but i would never want to go back to that, i like seeing the comparisons between Amiga/Atari/Dos versions of games and miss the packaging we used to get with the games but i am quite happy to have my games in digital format today.

Steam can be touch and go and i am not really all that happy about the surge of clickers, mobile ports and just plain bad ports in general. I like the open freedom to get the games out there though and the community are good at letting you know whether a game is worth it or not. So it's not all that bad.

To answer the question though, i don't believe there was ever a "Golden Age of Gaming". With the ability to buy old games here and on Steam, the ability to use dosbox for what isn't available and the plethora of games available to us...I'd say you are hard pressed to find a better time to play games.

Actually, I am of the opinion that they should for a few reasons, including:
1. It forces the students to think logically
2. It teaches kids about how computers work
3. It is a useful skill. Even "casual" programming can be quite useful for people who aren't professional programmers. Teachers can write programs to grade certain types of assignments (or to detect common mistakes), while doctors might write programs to analyze the data they get from patients. (Remember, doctors occasionally get unusual cases where packaged solutions might not work.)

Does programming really teach how to think logically? Any research on the matter? Even if it does, I'm sure that there are better ways to teach logic that would appeal to more kids. (Could involve "pseudo programming" such as building flow charts to solve problems, etc., but doesn't need to involve a programming language directly.)

Teaching kids how computers work is fine. Kids should be exposed to as much stuff as possible, and so should learn to program just like they should learn to cook. I'm not against it, I just don't feel it should get a special stress. I think that science and logic are more important than tech skills.

As for (3), that sounds horrible to me. Do you really want someone who's barely a passable programmer to write the software? I would rather have a professional do it. Do you want a doctor to waste time writing software when he could use that time to do his actual work?

Actually it might be even worse. We had to defend diploma (accountancy specialization) with use of MS PowerPoint. Now imagine requirement to write software for diploma :) I'd rather see universities give more practical knowledge than require doing stuff, which has no connection to your specialization at all. Practical knowledge part was quite lacking as I had to learn real things on my own from scratch... But hey, at least we had to buy and learn how to use Power Point for cool-looking presentations...

Teach? No. But it gives you a lot practice, especially in analysing problems and break them into smaller parts and even smaller parts and to develop a step by step logical solution.

I don't think that's 'logic' really. Well, it's one type of logic, but I think that teaching reasoning, cause and effect and such is more important than learning to string together a series of actions to get a result.

Depends. I find myself quite often using AHK to do small simple tasks. A while back i remember looking through to answering questions, and got fed up when 99% of them were asking the same question and not bothering to do anything themselves. Seriously, and auto-fire script is easy-peasy...

There's also sub languages and things that are highly useful, like RegEx which doesn't take a lot of work but could help a lot, especially replacing specific words in documents rather than blindly replacing exact matches...

Besides, actual programs would be making the programs, people less inclined to program would probably forget everything they learned a day after they were done with the course...

Hmmmm... Rinkworks and the programming subsection seems like a good thing to go over.... hmmm a few excerpts :)

Which is why I feel that there's need for an introductory course only. Kids who want to learn more could continue, but forcing it on everybody would be as pointless as forcing a drawing and 3D animation curriculum on everyone. (Although, granted, introducing everyone to drawing and 3D animation won't be bad.)

To prove that programming doesn't teach logic?

Well the logic one was further in involving calculations... Logic isn't necessarily something that can be taught...

I do not think it is "over", but we are on the highway where personal computing will be history(except when there will be tough opposition).

Your data will be shared with service providers, they will scan your mails for keywords to send you adds, they will know each game you buy, they will know how often you play it, when you play it, how you play and for how long you play it. They will know which games you play. Basically everything you do on "your" computer device will be mined and analyzed.

Welcome to the time of software as a service and cloud computing, connected to net for the rest of your life :).

My opinion: it will take about 10 years.

I´m just waiting for my own personal assistant android, a la C3P0, made in Japan.