51–60 of 91 posts
Basic should be fun to learn, and being able to program the 3DS - with a nice library of game-ish sprites and sounds - gets you to fun a lot faster.
Recently ran across this, another MS research project: https://www.touchdevelop.com/ It runs completely in the browser. There are some interesting things in the interface, stuff I had even been considering adding to my project, like a full on-screen keyboard with special keys.
If I put my kid in front of a modern Windows PC, leave them alone for a few hours, and hope they learn something, I'm not very optimistic. Let's say I install Small Basic on Windows 8.1 or 10. So now I've put my kid in front of an operating system that has such a high-level UI that it doesn't even have a proper list of programs. The media consuming portion of the OS is so heavily emphasized over the creative portion…
From the FAQ "To install Small Basic, you have to be running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7." So it's not a problem then :P
QBasic was the first programming language I learned, so I was curious: > How is it different from QBASIC? > Unlike QBASIC, Small Basic is based on .Net and can consume (not produce) "Objects". > It supports distinct Operations, Properties and Events. > It doesn't have GOSUB :) So this looks like an Object-Oriented QBasic. Awesome!
same here. My first run into with Basic was when I was 6 with an MSX. I was captivated by it but didn't understand what the white letters against the blue background meant. (MSX was ironically more popular in Asia than America where it was built by Microsoft). Pretty soon I got my own but it was a Korean version of MSX with only games on it. My friend had the MSX with keyboard and he showed me how to type stuff on it…
I used to write games and utilities on my TI-83. It was generally frowned upon, because teachers were afraid they would be used for cheating. Even writing your own program that would compute the Quadratic Equation was banned because it was unfair to students who couldn't.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm... nah, go straight to Haskell ;) Just imagine them in 5th grade trying to explain Monads to their friends.
Yeah, it would be interesting to learn about pure functions and referential transparency before basic algebra.
The first, important, way is that a tool that offers solid theoretical foundations does not (necessarily) require those foundations. You mention algebra, for example, and it's fair to assume that most school students (and probably their teachers!) don't really appreciate the theoretical grounding of algebra—but they can still hopefully use it with proficiency. In the same way, pure functions and referential transparency need only be difficult to apprehend if you insist on investigating their theoretical foundations; they can just be the way things work, and, if this is a first programming language, then there are no habits regarding mutable state to unlearn before being able to handle immutability.
The second is that, as nine_k (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9982600) points out, learning these concepts before algebra could make understanding algebra itself easier. There are deeply mathematical ideas in the foundations of most programming, even if they are (and even when they should be) hidden, and learning these ideas can help one to come to grips with abstraction in a context that encourages play and experimentation, unlike (unfortunately) the usual mathematics classroom.
I'd like to be positive about this especially considering the thought behind it, but...this is bad. I read the tutorial PDF hoping not to find BASIC-style unstructured programming. I was disappointed. QBASIC was the first language that I learned as a kid, and I regret it to this day. Learning to solve all my programming problems using GOTO in such a formative time set me back months when I finally moved to structured…
My first programming language was machine code of kp1816BE35 (I still remember the part name), a soviet clone of some 8-bit processor. It had to be flashed, not flashed, _burned_ into a UV-erasable ROM.
THAT thing had only GOTOs. Yet I don't see a problem with it.
this held my interest until I clicked play on one of the featured games and it wanted me to install silverlight.
Edit: that came out wrong... I'm sure the site serves a legitimate purpose in education about programming, which is certainly useful. I guess I meant "the most useful thing for me".
QBasic was the first programming language I learned, so I was curious: > How is it different from QBASIC? > Unlike QBASIC, Small Basic is based on .Net and can consume (not produce) "Objects". > It supports distinct Operations, Properties and Events. > It doesn't have GOSUB :) So this looks like an Object-Oriented QBasic. Awesome!
same here. My first run into with Basic was when I was 6 with an MSX. I was captivated by it but didn't understand what the white letters against the blue background meant. (MSX was ironically more popular in Asia than America where it was built by Microsoft). Pretty soon I got my own but it was a Korean version of MSX with only games on it. My friend had the MSX with keyboard and he showed me how to type stuff on it…
Author here. I made Small Basic when I was in MS in 2008. My goal then was to remove programming language ceremony (imports, defs, etc.) and get to instant gratification. There are several others that are keeping it alive with a well maintained blog ( https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=sm... ) and a friendly forum that welcomes programmers of all age and expertise. There's even a strong communi…