Kojo is a
programming language and
integrated development environment (IDE) for computer programming and learning. It has many different features that enable playing, exploring, creating, and learning in the areas of computer programming, mental skills, (interactive) math, graphics, art, music, science, animation, games, and electronics. Kojo draws ideas from the programming languages
Logo and
Processing.
Kojo is
open-source software. It was created, and is actively developed, by Lalit Pant, a computer programmer and teacher living in
Dehradun, India. Kojo provides
domain-specific language
A domain-specific language (DSL) is a computer language specialized to a particular application domain. This is in contrast to a general-purpose language (GPL), which is broadly applicable across domains. There are a wide variety of DSLs, ranging f ...
s (DSLs) for its different areas of learning, and as such can be considered an
educational programming language.
Kojo is written in, and its approach is based on, the programming language
Scala, where users begin with a simple subset of the language and progress in steps. Its graphical user interface is based on Java
Swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
; a former version was based on the Java
NetBeans platform.
Lalit chose Scala as the underlying language for Kojo because of its low barrier to entry and potential power.
Kojo has been used in schools and classes around the world. Some of these include:
* Himjyoti School, Dehradun, India.
* Mondrian House School, Dehradun, India.
*
Rishi Valley School, Madanapalle, India.
* Cardinal Forest Elementary School, Springfield, Virginia, USA.
*
Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, California, USA.
*
Our Lady's Catholic High School, Preston, England.
* A Swedish 4th grade class consisting of 10-year-old children. Kojo has been featured by
Dagens Nyheter (DN) and
Computer Sweden
''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...
as a result of the work done by this class.
* Events like Silicon Valley Code Camp,
CoderDojo
CoderDojo is a global volunteer-led community of free programming workshops for young people. The movement is a grassroots organisation with individual clubs (called "Dojos") acting independently. A charity called the ''CoderDojo Foundation'' o ...
, Hack The Future, and Meetups.
The development of Kojo is partly sponsored by
Lightbend
Lightbend, formerly known as Typesafe, is a company founded by Martin Odersky, the creator of the Scala (programming language), Scala programming language, Jonas Bonér, the creator of the Akka (toolkit), Akka middleware, and Paul Phillips (poker ...
, formerly TypeSafe, and
Lund University, Computer Science Department, where Kojo is used to introduce children and teachers to computer programming. Professor Björn Regnell of Lund University has an informative presentation on the subject. Professor Regnell writes, in translation: "''Kojo is the best tool, with a low barrier of entry, I have seen for making real text based programming available for children, that is also usable all the way up to university level''".
Kojo provides rich support for programming and learning in the
Turkish language as of the latest release in 2021 and beyond.
References
{{Reflist
Java platform
Free software programmed in Scala
Programming languages
Pedagogic integrated development environments
Educational_software