Generating random terrains with Enu – a Nim lang based interactive sandbox

Enu author here. I taught it to a group of 11 year olds at a community coding club a few years ago, with reasonable success. At the time Enu didn't work very well, but by the end the kids were able to code simple structures and make monsters chase them around. I just started teaching it to my 8 year old and he's picked up a few things, but so far he's mostly interested in building things with blocks. We've only been at it for a couple of hours though.

Enu was designed to be usable by non-readers and new typists. There's a shorthand version of common commands, and as long as you're happy with 90 degree angles you can specify direction without numbers. For example, a box could be:

  f 10 # forward 10
  r 10 # right 10
  b 10 # back 10
  l 10 # left 10

or:

  4.x:    # 4 times
    f 10  # forward 10
    t r   # turn right

It can also be configured to interpret both `;` and `:` as `:`, which makes it possible to type a lot of common Enu code without needing the SHIFT key.

Enu only recently got to a state that I'd consider usable, so whether or not this is enough to make it work for younger kids, I'm not sure. But I'm hopeful.

http://getenu.com

That's my history too. I remember spending hours in the 80's drawing LINEs and CIRCLEs in a loop, making tunnels, flowers, and whatever else I could come up with that looked cool. I didn't ever finish anything really, I mostly just played around, but it felt like I was on the cusp of something new and exciting, and that anything was possible.

That's the feeling I'm trying to capture with Enu. I'm sure it won't land for a lot of people, and that's ok, but I hope someone out there finds it and makes something really amazing, even if they're the only one who can see it.