Even a 9 year old can do it :)

[arn]

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5140FI20090205?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

While most children his age sketch on paper with crayons, nine-year old Lim Ding Wen from Singapore, has a very different canvas -- his iPhone.

Lim, who is in fourth grade, writes applications for Apple's popular iPhone. His latest, a painting program called Doodle Kids, has been downloaded over 4,000 times from Apple's iTunes store in two weeks, the New Paper reported on Thursday.


See how easy it is. ;)

Its free: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302828886&mt=8

arn

[1337brian]

Amazing.... When I was 8 all I had to work on was DOS :(
Imagine if we could go back to when we were that age with the tools we have now!

[nooobynick]

I've been wondering, is there anyway to convert the sdk to work on a windows computer?

[pablo19]

according to the article the dad is also an app developer so the 9 year old kid is clearly not alone on this one.

[goblues11]

WOW
that is crazy

[Zwilnik]

Amazing.... When I was 8 all I had to work on was DOS :(
Imagine if we could go back to when we were that age with the tools we have now!

What's interesting is the app description says it was developed on an Apple ][ GS emulator. Which makes it on a par to working in DOS (although with a lot better sound and a nice built in disassembler).

[Diablohead]

I think at that age all I could do is make a coloured picture using blocks in basic :P

[1337brian]

What's interesting is the app description says it was developed on an Apple ][ GS emulator. Which makes it on a par to working in DOS (although with a lot better sound and a nice built in disassembler).

But why would you choose to code on a Apple II, even as an emulator? :confused::confused::confused:

[Zwilnik]

But why would you choose to code on a Apple II, even as an emulator? :confused::confused::confused:

It's actually a really good system to learn to program on. (it used to be the mainstream computer for schools through the 80s and well into the 90s, that's why so many people remember Oregon Trail in the US ;) ).

AppleSoft Basic was very easy to learn the basics of programming on (although Integer Basic was faster for games ;) ) and it had a built in disassembler if you wanted to get into machine code (hardcore machine code too, you could directly edit hex).

Because it wasn't over the top graphically, it was pretty easy to get stuff on screen, although Woz's sneaky trick to save them a few resistors gives you whacky memory addresses for the screen. That teaches you all about doing look up tables for speed though ;)

The GS was even better for schools, more everything and an Ensoniq sound chip with 80 channels I believe.

[arn]

It's actually a really good system to learn to program on. (it used to be the mainstream computer for schools through the 80s and well into the 90s, that's why so many people remember Oregon Trail in the US ;) ).

I agree. I learned to program on an Apple //c and Apple //gs. It was very accessible. It seems much harder to just pick up and learn these days. it's far more abstracted.

arn

[1337brian]

It's actually a really good system to learn to program on. (it used to be the mainstream computer for schools through the 80s and well into the 90s, that's why so many people remember Oregon Trail in the US ;) ).

AppleSoft Basic was very easy to learn the basics of programming on (although Integer Basic was faster for games ;) ) and it had a built in disassembler if you wanted to get into machine code (hardcore machine code too, you could directly edit hex).

Because it wasn't over the top graphically, it was pretty easy to get stuff on screen, although Woz's sneaky trick to save them a few resistors gives you whacky memory addresses for the screen. That teaches you all about doing look up tables for speed though ;)

The GS was even better for schools, more everything and an Ensoniq sound chip with 80 channels I believe.

Wow cool thx zwilnik. My neighbor growing up had an old apple II that we would play (Number munchers) But I never got into the programing side of things...

[BulletDev]

It's actually a really great looking application.

This is really crazy!

[NotYou]

I didn't read this thread before, but just saw this article and was going to post it here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7874291.stm

Then I remembered seeing the thread title and figures it was the same thing.

I'm always a little iffy about stories like this. I'm sure the kid is smart, no doubt, but they say he was using a computer at age two. The smartest man in the world was probably eating worms in his backyard at age two, unless his parents wanted him to be a creepy overachiever.

[1337brian]

I didn't read this thread before, but just saw this article and was going to post it here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7874291.stm

Then I remembered seeing the thread title and figures it was the same thing.

I'm always a little iffy about stories like this. I'm sure the kid is smart, no doubt, but they say he was using a computer at age two. The smartest man in the world was probably eating worms in his backyard at age two, unless his parents wanted him to be a creepy overachiever.

LoL, I fell down onto a piano and hit my head on the keys when I was 2, doesn't mean I played piano since I was 2 :p

/S

[fairlady]

I'm sure the kid is smart, no doubt, but they say he was using a computer at age two. The smartest man in the world was probably eating worms in his backyard at age two, unless his parents wanted him to be a creepy overachiever.

Well, "using a computer" can mean a lot of things. My 2-year-old daughter can pick up my iPhone, turn it on, swipe the screens to find her kid-games, select the game she wants, and begin playing. She can also "send happy faces to Daddy" using instant messaging on my computer. :) Some might call that "using a computer"...

[1337brian]

Well, "using a computer" can mean a lot of things. My 2-year-old daughter can pick up my iPhone, turn it on, swipe the screens to find her kid-games, select the game she wants, and begin playing. She can also "send happy faces to Daddy" using instant messaging on my computer. :) Some might call that "using a computer"...

I would call that using a computer for sure!

[PeterM11]

i saw this a day or two ago.
thats inspirational for me. no joke.

[WellSpentYouth]

i saw this a day or two ago.
thats inspirational for me. no joke.
It is possible, I no an 11 year old (I will not mention who) who is learning simple obj-c programming. He is working hard and I think he'll do ok. I am not joking with yah.

Robert

[Kamazar]

Anything's possible with time and motivation (and usually money :)). Most of us don't have much of either, though.

[daniglue]

I'm not a dreamer, I don't belive it.

I'm sure this kid is smart, but his dad is smarter and know how to make people talk about him.

It's just a marketing strategy (all the world talk about them now) and using your kid for this stuff is quite sad (but smart, of course).
There are about 21 people in the world (called SAVANT) that have amazing skills and are actually genius, but none of them could do something incredible like this at the age of 9.

I bet they'll release a cool game soon, but not for free.

This is just my racional opinion and I might be wrong.

dani.

[Eric5h5]

I'm not a dreamer, I don't belive it.

I do...programming isn't so hard, and 9 isn't so young, that this isn't possible. It's not completely uncommon for very young teenagers (12/13) to be decent at programming, and while 9 would be pretty unusual, it's not even in the realm of genius. If he was something like 4, I would question it. I myself started at 11, even though my first efforts were more than a little on the shaky side. (I wasn't aware of such niceties as "for loops", so my programs tended to be somewhat...longer...than necessary. ;) ) I also only dabbled a little--I was more interested in drawing at the time--and didn't start doing anything serious until years later.

--Eric