Computers for children

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_ooga.com>
Date: Wed Jan 13 18:15:26 1999

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Miles O'Neal wrote:

> In fact, one can program well in any language,
> including Dartmouth BASIC, FORTRAN IV, even (I
> am serious) in COBOL.

This is true.

> BASIC doesn't encourage spaghetti code. Sloppy
> attitudes and approaches encourage it. Hacking
> encourages it.

This is not so true. While all languages are pretty much equivalent in
terms of expressability, they differ significantly in terms of "flavor" or
the types of programming they "encourage".

BASIC encourages sloppy programming and hacking if you don't know any
better, and what beginner is going to know better?

OTOH, there's that attention span problem beginners have. Pascal and
other languages that encourage better structure don't offer the immediate
feedback that BASIC does, so it's more likely to put off a beginner.
HACKING IS GOOD! Who among us didn't start as a hacker?

-- Doug
Received on Wed Jan 13 1999 - 18:15:26 GMT