Pip says Hello World

by Startacus Admin

In a world that revolves around computers as much as the sun, interest in coding is not what it could be.

People - particularly children - want to play the games made by coding, use the phones that programming makes possible, and try to get around the programming that stops Siri swearing; they’re less interested in actually learning the if() statements and the...you know, the other ones that we totally know.

Lines upon lines of code are not as intriguing to most people as the use of the finished technological product - especially in a world increasingly expectant of instant gratification - so we have to come up with new ways to introduce the progenitors of the AI apocalypse to coding. That, you may not be surprised to learn, is where our featured startup comes in.

Glasgow-based Curious Chip decided that programming on standard computers was too complex and perhaps intimidating, and so the way to appeal to younger programmers-to-be was to create their own software to run on their own hardware.

Over the course of a year, development progressed their handheld device, Pip, towards a version ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign. Powered by Raspberry Pi, Pip allows users to start off with drag-and-drop coding before progressing to real coding and creating their own stuff.

Pip encourages the coding and alteration of games as well as allowing retro games, like Sonic, to be played on the device. Users can learn a variety of programming languages via fun tutorials and step-by-step instructions. Users can make all sorts of applications and games, and then when it’s done, Pip can be used as a desktop computer to upload your work to Curious Chip’s ‘Spaceport’, where others can see it and try it out, and to browse Wikipedia for that all-important copy-paste-alter for homework.

Within only 30 days, Curious Chip surpassed their Kickstarter goal of £30,000 and ended the fundraising period with £40,031.

It’s clear that there is a lot of interest in encouraging the next generation to bring our new overlords into existence, and when shipping of Pip begins in August-September, we’re ready to accept Skynet’s rule.

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• #
• #coding
• #programming
• #innovation
• #children
• #crowdfunding

Published on: 29th January 2018