showell30

6 ms·

31.
by showell30 15y ago
Nope, I get it, you were suggesting ":=" as a replacement for the "nonlocal" keyword in Python. I'm not sure how my comments demonstrate any lack of reading comprehension. All I said about ":=" and "nonlocal" is that they are overly compl
32.
by showell30 15y ago
CoffeeScript's approach toward top-level variables is quite elegant and simple. When you declare a variable at top-level scope, it is equally available to all code within that file for both reading and writing, with no strange "nonlocal" o
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by showell30 15y ago
My intro CS class in college started with a week of Karel. It was incredibly fun for me, but I can't vouch for it as a first language, since I had already learned Basic and Pascal in high school. (Yep, I'm old). Karel variants are actual
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by showell30 15y ago
I like Python too, and the current CS curriculum on Khan is mostly, if not completely, based on Python.
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by showell30 15y ago
I can see the advantages of JavaScript over Pascal, Perl, Prolog, and Java. Did you ever try Python? What are your thoughts on Logo, Karel, etc.?
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by showell30 15y ago
I don't think Javascript's availability in the browser should be a major driving concern. Browser-based REPLs and editors are getting better and better. Two examples: http://repl.it/ and http://cloud9ide.com/ .
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by showell30 15y ago
Just to clarify one thing, it's very unlikely that you'll take a 50% performance hit when moving from JS to CoffeeScript. That may be true for Dart as well--I don't know. Also, since CoffeeScript transcompiles to JS, it will generally reap
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by showell30 15y ago
Heh, you're framing the question in a way that is more likely to elicit positive CoffeeScript comments, but I'm happy to oblige. In order to adopt any new language, you obviously need to eventually believe its benefits are greater than its
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by showell30 15y ago
I 100% agree that the DOM API is a terrible situation. I don't agree that JS is pleasant. When you run a marathon, your legs ache, and that's the DOM API (and all the other concerns of web programming). JS is the little blister on your f
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by showell30 15y ago
The author of the people-will-forget-JS-in-the-future premise is specifically referring to the future. CS specifically solves a present-day problem--ugly JS syntax.
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by showell30 15y ago
How many people will be running IE6 in the year 2016? Also, what is the desired end game here? Do we want software developers to have encyclopedic knowledge of browser quirks in 2021? How about 2026?