I’m not so sure this fits in the “elegant code” theme, but it’s a “fun with code” topic that someone might enjoy. Especially if you have a little one.

My 4yr old is learning how to spell small and simple words like her name, “Mom”, “Dad”, etc, and continuing her exploration with letters on the keyboard. She’s been banging on a keyboard since her early years on babysmash. In fact I came home one day to find my monitor turned 90 degrees and about every possible admin window open in the background because of certain key combinations were not trapped by babysmash. But I digress…

For a while she was typing some text into notepad and asking me what it spelled.

“ajlkjwelsl” –> What’s that spell daddy?

I then thought it would be fun if the computer could give instant feedback about what she typed and in a matter of a minute or so I whipped up this little “game” which we had fun playing for a bit.

You can view the gist here - https://gist.github.com/1180060

Just paste the function above as shown below and run it. Type some text (make sure your computer’s sound is on) and press enter to hear it.

I typed some of the usual things we say around the house and my 4yr old wouldn’t stop laughing…

Give it a try with your little ones (or big ones). Even let your non-techie significant other have a go – he/she may have some fun with it.