Comment by snackbroken
Comment by snackbroken 14 hours ago
> Anyway I have had a lot of success introducing programming with roblox scripting. It adds a lot of the "missing" lua library features and the script editor is a decent basic IDE that simplifies tooling, another huge pain point for novices.
I've had some success introducing programming in Lua to kids (ages 7-12) by way of the OpenComputers Minecraft mod. They were all already into playing modded Minecraft, and getting in-world feedback from running various commands (turning on/off redstone signals, moving around blocks, attacking monsters, etc.) meant that the "boring" time between "hey, let me show you how to program" and something exciting happening was <5 minutes. Beyond Minecraft-specific libraries, the computers in the mod also come with a HTTP client library, an editor and a shell that directly runs Lua scripts.
Yeah, this is one of the situations it makes sense to use lua. They're specifically interested in something that can be accomplished in it, and it's already configured into an environment that mitigates some of its weaknesses as a learning language. Roblox scripting is another area where I've had good results introducing kids to programming.