Apple launches Swift Playgrounds for iPad to teach kids to code
I like Swift as a language, but I have my doubts as to its suitability as a first-time programming language for children. It contains a whole lot of industry-standard jargon that we as practiced software developers don&#x27;t think twice about, and will have to be explained. Like, what the heck is a &quot;string&quot;, and why is it called that? What is this weird vertical character that I&#x27;ve never seen before (and how do I even begin to type it? is it an emoji?) and why do two of them next to each other mean &quot;or&quot;?<p>I don&#x27;t doubt that kids are smart enough to wade through it all, but if you put enough obstacles in their path then they&#x27;re going to wander off and do something more interesting. It also raises the question of whether you&#x27;re teaching kids programming for the sake of programming (in which case you&#x27;d rather use any of the myriad languages that have been designed for young children), or if you&#x27;re teaching kids programming for the sake of helping them solve some problem or achieve some task (in which case you&#x27;d probably pick a language with a more specific focus), or whether you&#x27;re just teaching them programming just for the sake of adding to the ranks of the software industry ten years from now.