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I started with Ruby, and Python, so I like open and clear reading/writing, but even Ruby/Python tends to lay it on thick. It's like the developers think they ha
by ThinkWriteMute 17y ago
I started with Ruby, and Python, so I like open and clear reading/writing, but even Ruby/Python tends to lay it on thick. It's like the developers think they have to add all this syntax just to be popular.
define fib_seq with (x,y)
..
end
I guess what I really want is a programming language that's really fucking easy to teach people.
C/C++ and Java are absolutely not it.
- loup-vaillant 17y agoChris Okasaki wrote such a language. One of it's features was mandatory indentation (like python). Why mandatory indentation was effective at making a language learn-able, he didn't really know for sure, but he suspected it is because there is less visual noise. If you want to make a super easy-to-teach, I suggest you try the following: (1) Mandatory indentation. This is one of the most influencing factors. (2) As little syntax as you can afford. (3) An interactive loop. It makes Tinkering easy. (4) A simple, probably dynamic, type system (numbers, chars and functions are probably enough). If you go the static route, there is no other way than Hindley-Milner based type systems. They are quite complex and their paranoia annoy some students, though. The closest I can think of right now would be a scheme without parentheses, like in http://www.genyris.com/ http://www.genyris.com/
- ThinkWriteMute 17y agoThis is great advice, thanks :)
- scott_s 17y agoThat's probably not what he meant by "paradigm": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm