SmileBASIC for Nintendo 3DS (opens in new tab)

Unity, Android, XCode. This is already happening. You can take games and start to learn programming top down instead of bottom up. Take a ready made game, make modifications and see what's happening (similar to the turtle exercises where you programatically draw a picture using a predefined API and later learn how to implement the actual drawing API). Apple is currently undergoing an effort to teach programming using Swift and the Swift REPL (http://www.apple.com/swift/) I think it's much easier to get the current generation interested in programming using games and instant gratification (according to some teachers I talked to, there seems to be a trend for pupils not engaging in challenges, see also http://marshnaylor.kinja.com/my-stepson-plays-video-games-on...)

When I started learning programming it was really hard to accquire information and no one knew how to program so I couldn't get a mentor. Nowadays it's much easier to get all you need to get started learning programming. Which absolutely good, but there is a life lesson in this difficulty to accquire information that the current generation will probably never learn.

I think it will be really hard to engage kids into learning programming bottom up, but YMMV.

For simple games, something like Game Maker is great. You can start off with simple drag-and-drop commands, and scale up to using the somewhat C-like language, Game Maker Language.

Okay that's it, off to Akihabara I go.

Back... Turns out the New 3DS does not come with a charger... I feel like I'm 10 again and I've ran out of AA batteries for my Gameboy Color

It sounds like you can upload programs to the Internet, so although it seems you can only have four stored in the 3DS at a time, I think it's just a matter of swapping them out.

dangit! I just bought petit computer last weekend. From the screenshots though this looks like the same interface as Petit Computer. Is this a new application separate to Petit or will this be an update for Petit I wonder...

States on the sample page: All Screenshots and videos in this page were captured from the Japanese Version of SmileBASIC (PetitCom 3)

Ah, this is probably the fabled PetitComputer for 3DS, rebranded, especially since the old Petit Computer used SMILEBasic too.

At the bottom, the site says "SmileBASIC will be available in Japan and other countries in respective languages.", which suggests to me that this will be available in both the US and Europe. At the very least, its predecessor, Petit Computer, is currently available on the US eShop.

Petit Computer has a function that allows you to share via QR code. Since the screenshots show that this is based on Petit, I'd assume that you have that in this as well.