HacketyHack

Commentary by Warren Applebaum

Hackety Hack a programming environment for the language ruby, meant for children. Its creator is the radical and outrageous professor [ok warren -ed.] who goes by the internet handle ”why the lucky stiff”. His goal is to enrich the lives of children and adults with programming and imagination; or perhaps to just draw cats. His other work; “why’s poignant guide to ruby” is one of the most unorthodox approaches to programming language study that I’ve ever encountered. He uses comic strips to denote the reader’s comprehension of each topic. His use of illustrations in comic book fashion allows him to explicitly depict the designs he is describing in ruby; as well as another of his creations, “shoes”, a GUI framework for ruby.

Children armed with Hackety Hack; coupled with some of the already available ubiquitous technologies, such as the iPhone presents a very optimistic outlook for the future of computing. Our children will already be programming the applications we learned how to implement in college, as tweens or even elementary school students. What kind of science fair projects are children going to be entering in the next decade? The impact of having these resources available for children at such a young age presents many concerns about developmental growth. The sacrifice of their other activities in order to program could possibly hinder their intellectual or emotional growth.