AIDE comes with a hello world program as the first thing it prompts you to try. So, iirc, one just has to hit "run", "install", and "open" to have it going. As for "getting it", that worry is very real. No, I don't think java and the android environment is nice enough that I would want to hand it off to a kid to play with without instruction. There is lots of cruft and more abstractions in play than needed right off the bat, and nothing to say which the kid should be paying attention to.
There looks to be a BASIC interpreter in the Play Store for free, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.free.basic. It doesn't have an integrated editor though, so the kid would have to understand typing things up in one program and running them in another.
Grabbing and trying it... some helpful examples to load would be nice, it doesn't have any. But it does have an "Enter Live" mode, in which one can type up a program and run it. So all that "don't miss a keystroke" charm of the old days is there. This I might very well hand to a kid.
There looks to be a BASIC interpreter in the Play Store for free, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.free.basic. It doesn't have an integrated editor though, so the kid would have to understand typing things up in one program and running them in another.
Grabbing and trying it... some helpful examples to load would be nice, it doesn't have any. But it does have an "Enter Live" mode, in which one can type up a program and run it. So all that "don't miss a keystroke" charm of the old days is there. This I might very well hand to a kid.