<story><title>Girls and Computers</title><url>http://rmurphey.com/blog/2012/03/25/girls-and-computers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jun8</author><text>I would add one thing:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  * impoverished environment
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
This, I think is crucial. Given a Linux machine with a rich GUI or an iPad, kids focus on the eye candy and start playing with those things. A (relatively) limited environment at the same time focuses them and makes them creative.</text></item><item><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>The thing that stands out in many of these stories are these three points:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   * Accessible price point,
   * Instantly usable to write code, 
   * a place to go when the capabilities ran out.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
It is very challenging to reliably buy this today. When my daughter wanted a computer a gave her a VAX 4000/VLC, it had BASIC, C, FORTRAN, and COBOL installed and could run adventure. I got it for free from a junk pile.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m going to try and fix that.
[edited for formatting]</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>femto</author><text>I&apos;d add another thing, both good and bad: turning if off returned it to a known state.&lt;p&gt;This meant you could experiment with it, to the point where it broke, secure in the knowledge that recovery was as far as a quick flick of the power switch.  The negative was that for complex projects, where you wanted to preserve the state of the machine, you had to play cassette roulette.</text></comment>
<story><title>Girls and Computers</title><url>http://rmurphey.com/blog/2012/03/25/girls-and-computers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jun8</author><text>I would add one thing:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  * impoverished environment
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
This, I think is crucial. Given a Linux machine with a rich GUI or an iPad, kids focus on the eye candy and start playing with those things. A (relatively) limited environment at the same time focuses them and makes them creative.</text></item><item><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>The thing that stands out in many of these stories are these three points:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   * Accessible price point,
   * Instantly usable to write code, 
   * a place to go when the capabilities ran out.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
It is very challenging to reliably buy this today. When my daughter wanted a computer a gave her a VAX 4000/VLC, it had BASIC, C, FORTRAN, and COBOL installed and could run adventure. I got it for free from a junk pile.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m going to try and fix that.
[edited for formatting]</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GFischer</author><text>One of my favorite game designers is fond of the mantra &quot;Restriction breeds creativity&quot;&lt;p&gt;There&apos;s also the classic &quot;Necessity is the mother of invention&quot;.</text></comment>