Re:Ask HN Computer Scientists: could my app make the world a...
by chadkeck on Friday October 09, 2009 @04:19PM
(#872363)
WizBang is designed to teach the most basic programming fundamentals: loops, conditional branches, numeric operations, and how these blocks interact with eachother.
I am in no way trying to get any current developer to switch over to building programs in WizBang. This was never an intention. The goal is to present a simple, minimal, visual environment in which to build simple programs.
After the beginner learns the basics, WizBang eases them into the next step of learning a real language, such as C++, Java, or Python, by allowing them to compile their WizBang programs into valid code in any language that's supported.
To answer your final question: the only advantage WizBang has over a textual language is that I think there are more grade school (and even high school) students that would experiment building programs with colorful shapes than typing commands into a text editor, then running a compiler or interpreter to see what they get.
I am in no way trying to get any current developer to switch over to building programs in WizBang. This was never an intention. The goal is to present a simple, minimal, visual environment in which to build simple programs.
After the beginner learns the basics, WizBang eases them into the next step of learning a real language, such as C++, Java, or Python, by allowing them to compile their WizBang programs into valid code in any language that's supported.
To answer your final question: the only advantage WizBang has over a textual language is that I think there are more grade school (and even high school) students that would experiment building programs with colorful shapes than typing commands into a text editor, then running a compiler or interpreter to see what they get.