So what IDE, or development setup, what language with what framework would you give into the hands of a child, to let it play around? Even what OS? All computers in our appartement are Linux or MacOS.

I learned programming basically on my own using QBasic, and then later my dad gave me a simple example app he did at work using Visual Basic 3 (only 20 lines of code or so), and then I got a Visual Basic 3 book, and that's how I learned.

In school, in knew a few other kids learned Delphi instead of VB. I don't know but I assume the learning curve is higher, so many childs maybe would lose interest too soon?

Another friend directly learned C and graphics programming as a child. But he is probably a rare exception.

For Delphi, we have a modern variant as Lazarus.

For VB, I'm not sure. Maybe this sVB, or maybe the mentioned Gambas.

I'm just not sure that the Basic language is really relevant anymore. Object Pascal is maybe slightly better but still very exotic nowadays.

Maybe frameworks like Löve? Not sure about Lua.

Or Python? But what framework? Sth like Pygame? Python maybe is as easy as Basic, but Pygame maybe requires a slightly higher learning curve than Visual Basic? And also, the VB IDE is probably way more beginner friendly than anything for Python?

Or Javascript? Is there a nice beginner friendly framework, to write simple games or so? And again, what IDE?