Apple II Bits

The first in a new Cult of Mac series makes the title, “Me and My Mac”, a bit of a misnomer. Their featured Apple user is Lim Xin Mei, who’s learning to program Applesoft BASIC on the Apple IIGS. The six-year-old is dubbed "the world’s youngest programmer", which may be familiar to retrocomputing enthusiasts: it was just a few years ago that her brother had a similar title.

"I have always wanted to teach my son [Lim Ding Wen] programming when he was a kid," wrote his father, Lim Thye Chean, in 2008. "When he was only 2 years old, he had already know how to insert a disk and boot up a computer, then used the mouse to find the program he wanted, double clicked to run it and have fun. He asked how to write a game when he was in primary one (7 years old), and I promised to teach him programming if he had done well in school, and he did."

Ding Wen and Xin Mei used to appear in a YouTube video series called The Apple IIGS Show, episodes of which are still available online.

Knowing that there are children being raised to be not just computer literate but technically proficient is a refreshing change from Canadian youth who couldn’t identify a floppy disk.

How would you ensure your progeny becomes the next generation of Apple II user?