Software Reviews
ToonTalk
Ken Kahn, the maker of ToonTalk, defines it as "an animated world where kids can make, run, debug, and trade programs". The "game" begins with you flying a helicopter; then, after landing, you can explore the nearby buildings and create your own programs.
Programming can be very complex and intimidating, especially for children. However, by making use of this child-friendly application, parents can help their kids create simple, fun games. Most children use ToonTalk to create virtual worlds which are filled with animated characters that have a life of their own.
There are several lovely characters in ToonTalk, such as the helpful Marty the Martian or Bammer the Mouse, which will smash lots of things. Children use this application to train robots which can do lots of useful things. Robots can send messages by delivering boxes to birds, for example. They can also create new agents, perform simple math operations, and so on.
The application has a detailed tutorial, as well as several examples and demos that can be explored. It's not a surprise that lots of elementary schools all over the world use ToonTalk for their programming-related classes.
The program provides full support for the English, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, French, Spanish and German languages. You can download it from the author's site by clicking the button below, or you can play with the web-based version here.
