Update on my own post (see below)

To sum up the below, I have a solution proposal to get girls interested in programming. And boys too, of course!

One solution proposed in the Times Article is to create the Action game equivalent for girls. But, my solution has to do with actually programming something; theirs just makes yet another product to buy. There is something to be said for encouraging the act of programming as opposed to just encouraging computer gaming.

Enter Inform. A free program that works on many platforms and allows people to create text-based games using natural language programming.

Briefly, natural language programming is based on a platform that eschews programming language based on UNIX, C, BASIC, FORTRAN, and others. It makes programming easier for young folk.

Click here for the INFORM website. (FYI the program is free). I hope to, over Thanksgiving, test Inform and respond back to show how it works, and how well it works.

But, just as aspiring authors should read the classics, so should aspiring text-based gamers 'read' the Infocom classics: Zork, Sorcerer, and Seastalker, among many.

AND, to show what text symbols can do, I encourage anyone remotely curious to take a turn through NETHACK, a game created out of ASCII symbols that has, as a hallmark feature, RANDOMIZATION. That is, every 'dungeon level' is different each time you play. How cool is that?! Oh, it's free too.