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From: akg@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Hughey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Programming language for youngsters
Message-ID: <557@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 88 23:18:05 GMT
References: <7200067@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: akg@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Hughey)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 22

In article <7200067@m.cs.uiuc.edu> schwager@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Well, my girlfriend decided to take the plunge.  She's buying an Amiga
>500 for herself and her kids this Christmas.  She has an 8-year-old and
>an 11-year-old.  Any suggestions on good programming languages that the
>11-year-old could start out on?  I've heard it said that learning BASIC
>as your first language could make you brain-dead for life, and I believe
>it to be true.
>-Mike Schwager		schwager@a.cs.uiuc.edu

Well, I for one don't buy it.  I learned BASIC as my first language, and I
would now like to believe I am a very competent C systems programmer.  BASIC
really isn't that bad, and that's especially true with BASICs which are as
structured as most of those on the Amiga.  AmigaBASIC allows line-number-free
programming, goto-less programming, quality subroutine generation, etc.  It's
far from perfect, but it sure isn't bad for a start, and it is a little
quicker to pick up than some things.  It also helps, for a first language,
to have an interpretive language with single-stepping and tracing functions.
If it were me, I would require BASIC as one of the first languages for any
computer science student.

Mike Hughey  --  (not a BASIC programmer anymore, but it sure was fun)