Lately, Alfred Thompson (@alfredtwo) has been sharing a great deal about his experiences with TouchDevelop. His latest post is actually a story around a video showing how to use Turtle Graphic in TouchDevelop. That did it. If anyone can program and create a video at the same time, I’ve got to give it a shot.
Of course, you need an idea. So, in tribute to Alfred’s Tip Calculator presentation at the CSTA Conference last summer, I thought I’d write a little tip program, all the while learning the language and user interface.
I head on over to the TouchDevelop site where you log in with your Microsoft, Facebook, or Google account. I log in with my live.ca account and I’m ready to explore. I took a look at one other program and decided to just forage ahead. Kids, don’t do this at home. I had no planning, no layout, (quite frankly no idea of what the syntax of the language was going to be…).
When you create your first script, you actually don’t get plopped into a blank workspace unless you want…
There’s going to be lots to explore in the future. For my simple program, I have no need for any bells or whistles…
Hopefully, I can change that!
Within a few minutes, I had learned enough of the environment and the language to create a first program.
And run it, I did…
Wait a minute. Careful observers will note that I created the program in Windows but ran it on my iPad!
Therein lies the excitement of this application. It’s not just a development tool for the desktop. Because it’s all online and carefully crafted, it will run on many devices!
Whoops. OK, just about anything. Looks like Google Chrome for the iPad isn’t on the list!
But it certainly worked well on my Android Phone.
In fact, the nice clean interface seems to play well just about anywhere.
But, writing and running on your device is only part of the story. There is an option to compile and share your work.
I don’t have a Windows Phone or Windows 8 but I certainly do have devices that could run the HTML 5 WebApplication. Even running it locally is interesting when you view the source and see all that’s going on to make it work.
If I’m a Computer Science teacher, I would be very excited to see this land in my classroom. It’s web based so you’re already accessing the latest, greatest version. It works on a variety of devices so BYOD is a real possibility. Students don’t need the school computers; they could be coding on their own device both at home and at school. What’s not to like?
I would encourage anyone who is interested in coding at any level to take a look at TouchDevelop to see if it has a home in your classroom. I’m betting that it well.
In addition to your own work, make sure that you explore the home page for TouchDevelop to see the showcase applications that are being development. There’s some amazing things and if the author allows you, you can grab a copy of her/his code and make it uniquely yours.
A printed manual and free to download manuals are available here. Finally, stay in touch on Facebook!
Related articles
- Touch Your Way To App Development with Microsoft TouchDevelop (pluralsight.com)
- Getting in touch with TouchDevelop (Think “From What to Wow”) (channel9.msdn.com)
- Speaking Hello World – TouchDevelop (acthompson.net)
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.