Date   : Sun, 02 Apr 2006 19:09:18 +0100
From   : Andy Armstrong <andy@...>
Subject: Re: Basic & BBC Basic

On 2 Apr 2006, at 18:46, John wrote:
>
> I can't help feeling that Andy is making the same point about Latin  
> that
> Colin is making via BBC Basic. ('Dead languages being useful')

Perhaps :)

I don't think the case for BBC Basic is anything like as strong as  
the case for Latin though...

> I'd give more weight to Andy's argument for Python for older children,
> although I know little about it, it looks similar. Is Python really  
> easy to
> learn like BBC Basic Andy? From the kids perspective I mean.

I honestly don't know - it's ages since I've been around kids  
learning to program. Thinking just about the languages I doubt Python  
is any more obscure or bewildering than BBC Basic. Of course the main  
strength of BBC Basic was its context - a box that you can switch on  
(beep) and type

MODE 0 : FOR i = 0 TO 1023 STEP 32 : MOVE i, 0 : DRAW 1024, i : NEXT

-- 
Andy Armstrong, hexten.net