Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!pitt!cisunx!ejkst
From: ejkst@cisunx.UUCP (Eric J. Kennedy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Programming language for youngsters
Message-ID: <13790@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 18 Nov 88 18:56:19 GMT
References: <7200067@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <557@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: ejkst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Eric J. Kennedy)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 53

In article <557@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> akg@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Hughey) writes:
>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.


>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.

Also, think of how much AmigaBASIC does in terms of hiding all of the
confusing system structures and functions.  For instance, to open a
window takes one line in AmigaBASIC, but C requires you to initialize
this huge and confusing (to a neophyte's point of view) structure
before you can open it.  A structure like the NewWindow structure is
not difficult for a programmer to understand and deal with, but I can
remember it took me awhile to really understand what was going on.
(I'm still not sure I do!)  And rastports and viewports and lists and
tasks and processes...An 11-year-old just should *not* have to deal
with this stuff when he is trying to learn the basic (no pun intended)
concepts of programming.

And don't tell me that you can program the Amiga in C without having to
deal with these things.  You can, of course, but we're talking about
kids, here.  They're not going to be interested in writing CLI-only RPN
calculators, class roster programs, or any of the other tripe you tend
to write in a first semester Pascal course.  They want exciting stuff,
graphics, sound, animation.  AmigaBASIC makes this possible.

BASIC, definitely.



Disclaimer.  I don't use AmigaBASIC.  In fact, I'm not too fond of it.
I have nothing to do with the writers.  I don't even _like_ Microsoft.
But for this application, I'd recommend it.  Besides, it comes with the
machine!



-- 
---
Eric Kennedy
ejkst@cisunx.UUCP