As some of you may know, I'm writing a series of short stories to help young people learn how to code. One of the things I wanted to do was introduce the concept of using RESTful APIs. It's so powerful to show people that they can retrieve information from the Internet and then manipulate it in software. Originally, I had wanted to use Twitter and Flickr as examples - they're both fairly well known and have interesting content. The only problem is that both require authentication. I'm an…
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I've spent the last few months sporadically writing stories to help young people code. I've now placed the four Python Pals stories up on GitHub. Here's how you can help. Write your own story and contribute it to the GitHub site (or send it directly to me). Read the stories and let me know how they could be improved (spelling, grammar, plot). Play test the adventures! Am I missing any vital steps? Can you or your children solve the mysteries? Illustrations! Do you have an…
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The Python Pals Divine A Date Penny was in a right grouch. Her voice wobbled as she unloaded her woes on to her best friend, Poppy. "It's all so unfair!" She started to sob. "Oh sweetie," said Poppy, "I hate to say this, but you're sounding like a right stereotypical teenager!" Penny cracked half a smile and blew her nose. "I know," she said "But it's true. What can't I date him?" Poppy sighed. Penny's mum had banned her from seeing this boy - and it was causing no end of bother. "Well, she …
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This is the second of my "Python Pals" short stories. They're designed to be solve-it-yourself puzzle stories to help kids learn the basics of programming. All feedback welcome! The Python Pals Write A Wrong Poppy's mother, Ada, was not happy. "I don't care about that," she shouted down the phone, "Why am I always the one who has to pick up the pieces?" She carried on ranting. Penny and Poppy were sat in the lounge. Even though the TV volume was quite high, they could still hear snatches…
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As mentioned earlier, I've been inspired by the Byte Brothers to create a mystery story which kids have to solve using their l33t h4x0r skillz in Python. This is loosely based on The Byte Brothers Go to a Getaway, by Lois and Floyd McCoy. My well-thumbed copy was printed in 1984. I'm not sure when I got it, but I remember being around 8 or 9 when I first started writing programs in BASIC. Sadly, BASIC is as outdated as the Lascaux Cave Paintings, so I've written this in more friendly…
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I'm currently getting involved in the Coding For Kids scene. I'm setting up a workshop in my local library to teach kids programming - specifically, the MIT language Scratch. I've been left slightly dissatisfied with the unstructured nature of the Scratch teaching materials. While it's quite fun to teach a cat to dance - it doesn't seem to be building up to anything. I'm also working with AppsForGood - it's a project run in secondary schools which aims to get students to research, design, and …
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