This kind of limited device is something I've been thinking about with respect to what interactions I want my children to have with computers. I remember when I was 9 years old and we got these computers at the lab at school and we wrote some LOGO and BASIC and it was a mind-blowing experience. We were drawing SQUARES! And we were making TRIANGLES of ASTERISKS! Hahaha, what a glorious thing that felt like.

I got so much joy from computers and I'd like my kids to have that kind of experience too without accidentally detouring into social media (which has my mind in a vice grip).

Still a couple of years away, but I think I'd like to evaluate this kind of device then and see if it's the right model to use.

I recall those days as well, but I think it's much harder to replicate today. In that era, computers were new and rare. Any interaction with a computer was notable, and then the ability yourself to not just interact, but actually CONTROL one was amazing.

Today, kids are surrounded by all kinds of tech. They see people interacting with tech in all kinds of ways from the moment they are cognizant. It's much harder to create that wow moment now.

The Basic variant on a TI-84 was magic. One science teacher at my high school allowed us to use any program as long as we wrote it ourselves. I remember making programs with nested menus for all types of physics algorithms. Through debugging, I ended up memorizing them anyway, but it was more fun (and error-free) to use the program itself.

I am probably going to give my toddler my Callisto 2 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4846997

when he is old enough to get some joy from it.