I also like to program. Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Haskell, Lisp, Caml, C, C++, Java, C#, you name it, I like it and have probably messed around with it. I also like to get other people messing around with programming. My brother-in-law knows all too well the look that I get in my eye when I am going to try to get him interesting in secure shelling in to my Linux box to play around with some new language. What can I say? I’m addicted and am also prone to sharing my addiction.

The problem is, it’s hard for people who don’t know much about programming to get started with it. Even if they do manage to jump over all the technical hurdles in their way, it’s harder still for them to get to the point with a programming language where they can do something that they find rewarding. Most programming language tutorials go something like this:

1. Learn to write a program that prints “Hello, world!” to the screen
2. Learn to write a program that plays a number guessing game
3. Learn to write a program that functions as a simple (and I do mean simple) address book
4. Finally, in an attempt to really impress you, the book does something so mind-bogglingly complex that they lose you completely, such as (trying to) show you how to write a simulator for genetic selection or planetary weather or a cryptographic method for generating rainbow tables…

Well, HacketyHack is changing all that. What is HacketyHack you ask? Well, I’ll be brief. It’s programming made fun again. It’s learning a new programming language made simple again. And best of all, it’s both of those things, made inexpensive again. (How inexpensive you ask? Try free. Seriously.)

As with all truly great things, you should just try it out if you want to understand it. You can click here to just grab the download (bear in mind that HacketyHack is a work in progress. It hasn’t officially been released, so some things may not quite work yet. But even with all those caveats, it’s still a lot of fun.)