I built the 2026 version of a typewriter or Commodore BASIC for kids.

Our 4-year-old got a real kick out of typing his name into my laptop’s password field. It reminded me of the joy my friends and I got out of our grandparents’ typewriters and text-based computer user interfaces.

Something needed to be done! Any modern interpretation of those systems needs three things:

• The classic typewriter “ding!” sound
• Clear goals – “if I enter the right combination of letters, something fun happens”
• A near-zero barrier to entry

The sound effects were simple. For goals, I landed on colors and animals: type “red”, and the screen turns red; type “dog”, and the computer barks. The app also lets you save family names using localStorage to trigger a loud “ding!” when typed.

As with all my side projects, I embraced zero data: no accounts, no user data getting stored on any servers, no cookies. You can build delightful products that respect user privacy without a long privacy policy.

Try it out at qhf.me/tt.