Our experiences using the SiMPLE programming language

SiMPLE stands for "Simple Modular Programming Language & Environments" (yes, it's one of those self-referencing acronyms). It's a programming language and environment designed for children.

Downloading and using the SiMPLE environment is free. The website is labelled as "family safe" and free of adware and spyware. The home page also has links to some programs and games that were created with SiMPLE to give an example of what can be done with the language.

I found the site through a basic Google search on something like "programming for kids". We downloaded and installed the program pretty easily. Once the program is running, if you type "help", you will be directed to their online documentation. A couple more clicks will get you to their tutorial.

Their tutorial talks you through writing your first program, step by step. This is probably just right for young children, getting them started even if they don't yet have a deep understanding about computer programming. If I were trying to learn SiMPLE by myself as an adult, I would get a bit impatient about having them holding my hand all the way through and telling me exactly what kind of program I should write.

Anyway, JG followed the instructions and typed in his first program.

The first program they give you to write in the SiMPLE tutorial is called CIRCLES. When you run it, it draws circles of various colors all over your screen.

Writing the CIRCLES program and using it allowed JG to:

• Practice his typing.


• Learn what a subroutine is.


• Learn the difference between constants and variables.


• Review his parts of speech. (All the command words in SiMPLE are verbs.)


• Understand that computers are really dumb. Something as small as misspelling a word or leaving out a parenthesis will leave a computer hopelessly confused.

We watched the CIRCLES program draw circles on our screen, then we started experimenting. What if we used a constant in this command over here instead of generating a random number? What would change? We rewrote the program several times, and each time we saw how changing particular portions of the program changed the size, position, and colors of the circles.

A fun and enlightening first lesson!

The second SiMPLE program is called MUSIC. It is supposed to make different noises in response to movement of the mouse. We had a bad experience with this one. JG typed it in exactly as directed, and it did indeed make the noises. But we couldn't exit the program and couldn't get back to Windows to terminate it. We had to power down the whole computer. Won't be doing the MUSIC program again.

This one worked fine. The BALLOONS program is similar to the CIRCLES program, but this one produces filled circles plus random noises.

We experimented with changing the program to alter the locations, sizes, and colors of the balloons and came up with some really cool effects. JG decided that it would be cute to edit the line of code that makes the random sounds and change it so that it produces one constant, unending, unchanging blare. Yikes!

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So at this point, JG is halfway through the first section of the SiMPLE tutorial. The programs so far have not included much in the way of using user input when they run, but they have been interesting anyway. I'm looking forward to the rest of the tutorial as it gets into more advanced programming concepts.