mash-commander

The command-line shell for kids: https://mash-commander.appspot.com/

Overview

Mash Commander is a command-line game for kids with an extremely low barrier to entry--just mash on the keyboard. It drops kids into a world they can explore through the keyboard. Curated sets of words and images guide children to learn by typing words in the command-line shell. Discover commands, highlighted in blue, that make things happen!

Quickstart

Online: https://mash-commander.appspot.com/

Offline:

git clone https://github.com/josephburnett/mash-commander.git
cd mash-commander/resources/public
python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080
chromium-browser --kiosk http://localhost:8080

Freestyle mode

Set mode

Type animals to explore the animal set.

Features

• Simple interface. No extra spaces. No punctuation. Just letters, numbers, space, backspace and enter.
• Correctly spelled words are highlighted--but mashing is still allowed.
• Enter pushes the current line onto the history stack. Click or touch a line to bring it back.
• clear command clears the screen.
• Enter set mode by typing the name of a set. E.g. animals or alphabet.

Contributing

Wanna add something to Mash Commander? Help me fill out one of the existing sets or create a new one! Sets are easy to program, like this. Then send me a pull request.

Safety

By default, no information typed into Mash Commander goes over the network. All of the code runs client-side in the browser. Mash Commander can be run locally without a connection to the Internet if you want to set it up in a sandbox for your kids.

History

This is an online version of mash which my kids have been tinkering around with for a few years (ages 5 and 2).