Hi guys...
(Apologies for any typos etc...)

This is basically a rant.

I have been doing kids level projects and writing code to suit since around 1982, for the uProfessor, for the Sinclair Spectrum and later for the QL, IBM-XT in MS-DOS and after that for a 386DX40 up to Windows 95, until I dedicated most my work for the AMIGA platform from 1996.
Since then I have built and coded for Linux and let us not forget AudioScope.sh for almost any *NIX style bash terminal.
It has been a hard slog to learn, even badly, 6502, Z80, 8088/8086/80186, x86, PIC and other assembler code as well as varying dialects of C, BASICs of many variants, ARexx, Python from version 1.4.0, Shell scripting, HTML 4+ and others I have since forgotten.

<rant>
Well I came upon an advert for Lego Boost, (a supposed programming app'), and in this advert it quotes:

"""
It's easy to keep things simple (...) but there is almost no limit to what you can program.
"""
WHAT??? Almost No limit?
Well maybe ALMOST NO LIMIT within the confines of these Lego kits. But believe me, doing my stuff has taught me a great deal about kids and their so-called abilities along with the programming languages I have used.

It also, in a promotion video, quotes - paraphrasing:
"""
Kids can learn how to code easily with this app'.
"""
SWEEPING STATEMENTS!

Well this app' is much like 'scratch':
Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share
Of which I tried for a nine year old to _learn_ how to code to create his own games. Not too successful I am afraid, the said nine year old boy's attention span was about 10 minutes at best and a book teaching scratch, (and python using pygame), that we bought him as a(n) XMAS present never ever got read.
He kept telling his parents he wanted to do programming.
After decades of doing projects mainly for kids from around eight years old I soon discovered that attention spans of even ten year olds was small and everything had to be designed to be built by a youngster, under supervision, within an hour at the absolute most.

Well there is programming and there is programming.
Learning a computer language is NOTHING like the same as drag and drop systems in a tight, closed, _eco_system_ where programming error reports don't exist.
Coding from the ground up may not be glamorous but you get to know how things work language wise and you soon find that the 'ALMOST NO LIMIT' sure has numerous limits.
Building hardware that has to be made from almost RAW materials is much more difficult than kits as those kids that have tried my stuff learn how to solder, mark out and drill boxes, how to lay out components, cut tracks etc on stripboard/Veroboard to get any home brew hardware to work.
</rant>

Questions to my friends on here:

What is/are your opinion(s) on my rant?
Do you think that apps' like 'scratch' and 'Lego Boost' actually teach kids programming?
How did you become the professional(s) that you are?
Other?