Geeky nostalgia, plus home schooling idea.

Hearing about a new IDE from Microsoft put my mind on a slightly nostalgic path today. Back to the days when the DOS prompt wasn't started from windows, and 25 MHz was a perfectly fine processor speed. Back to the days of floppy disks and 8 MB hard drives. Back when a mouse was an optional attachment to your computer. Back to the days of QBASIC.

This is where I found my first relief for my geeky tendencies, sitting for hours every day teaching myself to program by reading the QBASIC help-files and examples. I actually did make a few simple games and such. Although probably long lost by now on a demagnetized floppy disk at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

If it's not obvious from the picture, QBASIC is more than outdated now, but there's still hope for the young geek. SmallBasic is a new IDE, made especially for the purpose of learning programming. It has all you need to start building your own computer programs, and a helpful sidebar that explains along the way what you're doing.

So if you're a homeschooler who want your kids to turn out as geeky as yourself, or just someone who don't know anything about computer programming but want to learn, check it out. MSDN actually has their own Kid's Corner with tons of material for the young aspiring programmer, so if you have kids (or are one), take a look!