rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) (05/10/91)
In article <1991May9.010805.21605@mcs.kent.edu> rothstei@mcs.kent.edu (Michael Rothstein) writes: >"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students who've >had a prior exposure to Basic; as potential programmers they are mentally >mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." Edsgar Dijkstra > >(though not quite as extreme as he is, I also think we should not encourage >the usage of Basic). Actually, I'm quite happy with BASIC. It was my first language. Not one of these micro-pared-down BASIC versions like Applesoft, though. It was HP's BASIC (on the 3000 series), and was really a joy to work in--real subroutines, matrix operations, PRINT USING, .... For string manipulation or quick programming, I haven't found a language I'm happier with than BASIC, actually. Unfortunately none of the useful dialects (VAX BASIC, HP/3000 BASIC, ....) are portable. Still, it doesn't mean that learning BASIC necessarily messes you up, as long as you have a version with reasonable control structures.... Followups to alt.religion.computers, just in case. Anton +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison | "VMS Forever!" | +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+
) (05/10/91)
rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) writes: > In article <1991May9.010805.21605@mcs.kent.edu> rothstei@mcs.kent.edu (Michae > >"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students who've > >had a prior exposure to Basic; as potential programmers they are mentally > >mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." Edsgar Dijkstra > > Actually, I'm quite happy with BASIC. It was my first language. Fear not, for it is possible to recover from BASIC. It was my first language, too, and I used to think it was quite good for hacking together quick example programs. Then came revision time for my Computer Science degree. I decided to try out a few of the algorithms I had been taught, in the hope that playing with them would help me to learn them. I dug out my Structured BASIC interpreter, and I was overjoyed to discover that I couldn't remember how to write BASIC. I couldn't even put together a simple three-line function. I struggled for a couple of minutes... then fired up my Lisp system and used that. It was a proud moment. I suddenly felt that I could truly call myself a computer scientist. mathew