You could call nine-year-old Lim Ding Weng a bit of a prodigy. He might be young, but the Malaysian boy from Singapore is already fluent in six programming languages. He started programming just two years ago and has already completed 20 projects.
But it’s the most recent that’s set to make him money. What began as a finger-painting program for his two younger system has become Doodle Kids, an application for the iPhone that lets users draw images on the iPhone screen using their fingertips, and, according to the BBC, it’s been downloaded over 4,000 times is just two weeks.
"I wrote the program for my younger sisters, who like to draw," said Lim. "But I am happy that people like it."
He told The Electric New Paper that he originally wrote the program in Pascal for computer, but adapted it for the iPhone.
Lim’s father, Lim Thye Chean, who works as chief technology officer at a Singapore hi-tech firm and also writes iPhone applications, underplayed his son’s achievements.
"Ding Wen is an above average boy with an interest in computers, especially Apple IIGS and Macs, likes to do programming, and that’s it."
"Doodle Kids is an extremely simple program that can be done by anybody. Everybody can program – if Ding Wen can, so can you."
Lim Ding Weng is now working on a new iPhone game called Invader Wars.
