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The syntax/formatting reminds me of Lingo [0]. But also Logo and Basic. One of the things I really liked about coding in Lingo (in Director [1]) was the sparse

The syntax/formatting reminds me of Lingo [0]. But also Logo and Basic. One of the things I really liked about coding in Lingo (in Director [1]) was the sparse syntax but the code auto-highlighted as you typed. (not common back then) But also auto indented as you typed. It was really easy and fast to program with. The graphics code reminded me of "hi-res" graphics programming on the Apple computer. Some nostalgia there. This brings me around to how magical it felt to program things for the first time as a kid, and how there doesn't seem to be an environment for this kind of excitement or discovery anymore. Maybe just a change of times, like how the first planes and auto-mobiles were created by hobbyists, but those times are mostly gone. Any notion on what a language like this would be good for? I get the impression maybe similar to my own nostalgia... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(programming_language) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Director https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Director

chkas 8y ago
> Any notion on what a language like this would be good for? I get the impression maybe similar to my own nostalgia... I agree with you - learning programming was more fun in the past. It can be used as a first text-oriented learning language. I also like to use it myself to write simple games. https://easyprog.online/games/ https://easyprog.online/games/
- irq-1 8y ago
  The automatic formatting was nice, but I found a few times where I seemingly couldn't type; the formatter would just reset and ignore the key. For example I had "exit .." and couldn't hit enter to put the dots on the next line. New people probably won't understand why they can't press enter.
  - chkas 8y ago
    Thank you for pointing that out. When you press Enter, everything is parsed, including the current line. The current line will only be accepted if it is syntactically correct. Normally this works quite well, but for beginners this can be a real problem. With "Ctrl-R" you can see the error. I need to think about how to improve this.
heyoni 8y ago
How is programming less magical today than it was in the past? if anything it’s far more fulfilling now considering how much more one can accomplish.
- skybrian 8y ago
  Some of it was that early PC's didn't come with any software other than a BASIC interpreter. So you had to write a little program (or type one in) to get it to do anything, and you weren't comparing your accomplishments to professionally-written programs that you could just download. So yes, making an early computer play a simple melody was magical.
- ModernMech 8y ago
  In the past you fired up an editor and the tools were built in and ready to use. Im thinking back to BASIC. Today you have to download and understand a stack of tools and languages before you get anything printing on the screen.
  - rogual 8y ago
    How about this framing: back then, an IDE was called a "microcomputer" and you couldn't just download it for your existing personal communications device; you had to go to the store and buy it as a physical piece of hardware. We have it so much easier today!
  - ebarns 8y ago
    Not necessarily true :( Python is pretty out of the box in my opinion. There is setup involved if you want to create proper dev environments but you can avoid it also. Always love how easy it is to jump straight in and start coding something.
    - nurettin 8y ago
      Fire up your python IDE and make a bouncing ball. Nowadays programming feels a lot like an MMORPG. You can't do a solo mission, lest you will get stuck behind some bushes unable to move. You have to go downtown, fetch some libraries, visit their documentation stores, check facebook, take a look at your stackoverflow pending events, polish your IDE to work with whatever you've just downloaded, copy-paste some code, refurniture until it works, then refactor until you are satisfied. Repeat forever. Before, all my turbo pascal adventures were solo missions. Batteries were included. I did not leave the IDE and did not need another book. I did not download additional manuals. It was all there.

chkas 8y ago

> Any notion on what a language like this would be good for? I get the impression maybe similar to my own nostalgia... I agree with you - learning programming was more fun in the past. It can be used as a first text-oriented learning language. I also like to use it myself to write simple games. https://easyprog.online/games/ https://easyprog.online/games/

irq-1 8y ago
The automatic formatting was nice, but I found a few times where I seemingly couldn't type; the formatter would just reset and ignore the key. For example I had "exit .." and couldn't hit enter to put the dots on the next line. New people probably won't understand why they can't press enter.
- chkas 8y ago
  Thank you for pointing that out. When you press Enter, everything is parsed, including the current line. The current line will only be accepted if it is syntactically correct. Normally this works quite well, but for beginners this can be a real problem. With "Ctrl-R" you can see the error. I need to think about how to improve this.

heyoni 8y ago

How is programming less magical today than it was in the past? if anything it’s far more fulfilling now considering how much more one can accomplish.

skybrian 8y ago
Some of it was that early PC's didn't come with any software other than a BASIC interpreter. So you had to write a little program (or type one in) to get it to do anything, and you weren't comparing your accomplishments to professionally-written programs that you could just download. So yes, making an early computer play a simple melody was magical.
ModernMech 8y ago
In the past you fired up an editor and the tools were built in and ready to use. Im thinking back to BASIC. Today you have to download and understand a stack of tools and languages before you get anything printing on the screen.
- rogual 8y ago
  How about this framing: back then, an IDE was called a "microcomputer" and you couldn't just download it for your existing personal communications device; you had to go to the store and buy it as a physical piece of hardware. We have it so much easier today!
- ebarns 8y ago
  Not necessarily true :( Python is pretty out of the box in my opinion. There is setup involved if you want to create proper dev environments but you can avoid it also. Always love how easy it is to jump straight in and start coding something.
  - nurettin 8y ago
    Fire up your python IDE and make a bouncing ball. Nowadays programming feels a lot like an MMORPG. You can't do a solo mission, lest you will get stuck behind some bushes unable to move. You have to go downtown, fetch some libraries, visit their documentation stores, check facebook, take a look at your stackoverflow pending events, polish your IDE to work with whatever you've just downloaded, copy-paste some code, refurniture until it works, then refactor until you are satisfied. Repeat forever. Before, all my turbo pascal adventures were solo missions. Batteries were included. I did not leave the IDE and did not need another book. I did not download additional manuals. It was all there.