I don't think WizBang could ever take away the beginner running into compiler errors, but I feel that the beginner programmer has so many problems to face at once that this situation can be improved. By using WizBang, they can interactively learn about looping and branches without worrying about syntax.
I taught Computer Science 101 in grad school. I think this has a lot of potential.
I wonder if syntax errors could be made friendlier by animating them as visual pieces that don't fit together or that do not stick? I can imagine an editor that always keeps the text syntactically correct (by adding in closing brackets, boilerplate text to be typed over, etc). A visual editor that behaved in the same way would be very useful. Especially if the program code would dynamically update in a parallel window!
I think that people can relate to some widget or puzzle piece fitting or not fitting onto another widget or piece. Certainly, one can relate to this more readily than cryptic messages like "syntax error."
I taught Computer Science 101 in grad school. I think this has a lot of potential.
Well, that remark certainly devaluated my opinion of grad schools. I understand not everyone is fit for SICP at 18 (I certainly wasn't), but this is quite on the opposite end.
