This Mac app will help your kids learn basic programming
In a bid to teach basic programming skills to young kids, Apple has launched the Swift Playgrounds app on Mac. The service had originally debuted for iPad, but the Cupertino giant has now leveraged its Catalyst platform to expand its support to macOS, and serve a wider user-base. Here's all about Swift Playgrounds and its key features.
Designed for those with no knowledge of coding
Swift Playgrounds, as the name suggests, is an app that uses games and puzzles to help kids learn beginner-level coding skills. The platform works seamlessly and makes it easy to learn the basics of the Swift programming language. In fact, according to Apple, it can be helpful to anyone, even a person with no prior knowledge of coding.
Even 12-year-olds can use Swift Playgrounds, says Apple
"It's perfect for students just starting out, from twelve to one-hundred-and-twelve," Apple's description of Swift Playgrounds says. "The whole time you are learning Swift, a powerful programming language...used by professionals to build many of today's most popular apps. [The] code you write works seamlessly."
Lessons curated by Apple powering the app
At the core, Swift Playgrounds relies on a series of Apple-curated programming lessons. As you launch the app and play through puzzles in an interactive 3D world, you move through all the lessons one by one. This would give kids important coding lessons while creating and maintaining a fun and playful experience for them on the macOS.
Plus, the experience has been specifically designed for macOS
The new app, Apple says has been designed specifically to leverage the power of Mac. For instance, kids can simply click via mouse to see and pick code suggestions and write entire programs in no time. Beyond that, they can also use the help button given alongside suggestions to learn about the available commands or drag-and-drop commonly-used code snippets into the playground.
