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From: jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: best introductory PC language
Message-ID: <1991Apr23.124716.19729@news.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 23 Apr 91 12:47:16 GMT
References: <1991Apr20.031652.7153@midway.uchicago.edu> <1991Apr21.005055.10020@midway.uchicago.edu>
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In article <1991Apr21.005055.10020@midway.uchicago.edu> goer@ellis.uchicago.edu (Richard L. Goerwitz) writes:
>I recently posted a query about the "best" introductory PC language -
>an inquiry for my 5 year-old.  Many have mistaken my request, so let
>me try to be clearer:
>
[...much stuff deleted...]
>-- 
>
>   -Richard L. Goerwitz              goer%sophist@uchicago.bitnet
>   goer@sophist.uchicago.edu         rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer

Richard,
 I tried replying directly to you, but apparently my mailer is sick...

I know you mentioned earlier that you weren't really interested in C or
PASCAL for your son...for what its worth...

Get a copy of TURBO PASCAL by Borland International. Its a GREAT language
for learning/teaching computer programming (most colleges that I know of
base their comp. sci. curriculm on PASCAL...They use it to teach structured
programming *before* going off into other areas such as Object Oriented 
Programming (Smalltalk), string processing (SNOBOL, etc) and AI
(PROLOG, Lisp).

If your son is writting programs that contain ~500 lines of code, then he should
be able to handle TURBO PASCAL...It has its IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
and many graphics routines/functions...Its also recommended as a good "starting
language" for people just learning to program...

Good Luck

John

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Burton                                                        |
| G & A Technical Software                                           |
| jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov                                       |
| jcburt@cs.wm.edu                                                   |
|                                                                    |
| Disclaimer: Hey, what can I say...These are *my* views, not those  |
|             of anyone else, be they employer, school, or government|
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