Why Jonny Can't Code
-
Why Jonny Can't Code[^] I think this guy's got a point. Things are very, maybe too complex for simple PRINT "Hello World!" type programs today. A lot of today's technologies are not very approachable... You don't start out mountain climbing by first tackling Mt. Everest. You start out much much smaller and work up to Mt. Everest. Where's the BASIC of today. Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
Sure. Run MS-DOS 6.22 ina virtual machine.
-
Why Jonny Can't Code[^] I think this guy's got a point. Things are very, maybe too complex for simple PRINT "Hello World!" type programs today. A lot of today's technologies are not very approachable... You don't start out mountain climbing by first tackling Mt. Everest. You start out much much smaller and work up to Mt. Everest. Where's the BASIC of today. Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
Is this the same "Jonny" I know who grew up watching Scooby-Doo right after he got out of bed, before he even had his breakfast sugar-and-carbs load, before he took his ritalin before going off to school with his iPod playing "death metal" with the volume set to stun ? The same Jonny who knows more about the family life of the Simpsons than about his parents ? The same Jonny who has the attention span of a gnat ? It sure sounds like him. best, Bill p.s. Marc : let's not leave out "turtle graphics" !
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844
-
Wow - do you know anything about programming at all ? Visual Basic is, along with C#, one of the most popular languages for Windows development today. The writer is an idiot. He must be looking for a specific version of BASIC. The problem with programming today, is that there's so much drag and drop, point and click, write no code stuff going on that people are taking contract work and hitting a wall the moment they find they need to write code after all, and hitting our ASP.NET forums predominantly, although I notice a real increase in the WPF forum of late. The problem is that people assume it's easier than it really is to write good code, or just plain don't care about good code, and are glad that todays GC environments allow them to write crap that won't actually crash the system, and then sell it.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
uh, yeah i have a fair bit of knowledge about programming. you miss the point. and your last paragraph is exactly the point of the article.
-
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
Sure. Run MS-DOS 6.22 ina virtual machine.
hey good idea
-
uh, yeah i have a fair bit of knowledge about programming. you miss the point. and your last paragraph is exactly the point of the article.
I'm sorry. The article does appear stupid to me, but I did fly off a little bit. I'm just not having a good day. The point appears to me to be that languages with line numbers and no OO are a better starting point than any modern language. I don't really agree. You can create a simple VB.NET project and write plenty of VB code, without having line numbers, which are only useful for arbitrary goto statements, something I don't think people need to learn about.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
Why Jonny Can't Code[^] I think this guy's got a point. Things are very, maybe too complex for simple PRINT "Hello World!" type programs today. A lot of today's technologies are not very approachable... You don't start out mountain climbing by first tackling Mt. Everest. You start out much much smaller and work up to Mt. Everest. Where's the BASIC of today. Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
Honestly I do not see what this guy's problem is ... he can simply go get FreeDOS and grab the Basic compiler from their available list of languages and run that in a VM, if he's that hard up to run an old version of basic like that. Or how about use a programming language specifically designed for kids? Like KPL[^]? The problem isn't the lack of machines to get kids interested, and it certainly isn't accessibility, since the internet has blown those doors wide ope, the real problem is a lack of kids that have a desire or interest in doing anything other playing video games, texting and updating Twitter with what they're doing now. But that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about those ...
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTL -
Wow - do you know anything about programming at all ? Visual Basic is, along with C#, one of the most popular languages for Windows development today. The writer is an idiot. He must be looking for a specific version of BASIC. The problem with programming today, is that there's so much drag and drop, point and click, write no code stuff going on that people are taking contract work and hitting a wall the moment they find they need to write code after all, and hitting our ASP.NET forums predominantly, although I notice a real increase in the WPF forum of late. The problem is that people assume it's easier than it really is to write good code, or just plain don't care about good code, and are glad that todays GC environments allow them to write crap that won't actually crash the system, and then sell it.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Hear hear! VB is not BASIC; there's a bunch of extra plumbing that needs to be done.
-
Why Jonny Can't Code[^] I think this guy's got a point. Things are very, maybe too complex for simple PRINT "Hello World!" type programs today. A lot of today's technologies are not very approachable... You don't start out mountain climbing by first tackling Mt. Everest. You start out much much smaller and work up to Mt. Everest. Where's the BASIC of today. Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Where's the BASIC of today.
Perl.
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
I have Turbo BASIC on 5.25" floppies. P.S. Also HP BASIC on my AlphaServers, but it's a shame that DEC abandoned the BASIC environment that I first learned on the high school's PDP-11. :sigh:
JB> type test.bas
10 A=5
20 B=4
30 C=A*B
40 PRINT C
50 END
JB> basic test.bas
JB> link test
JB> run test
20
JB>modified on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 8:46 PM
-
I'm sorry. The article does appear stupid to me, but I did fly off a little bit. I'm just not having a good day. The point appears to me to be that languages with line numbers and no OO are a better starting point than any modern language. I don't really agree. You can create a simple VB.NET project and write plenty of VB code, without having line numbers, which are only useful for arbitrary goto statements, something I don't think people need to learn about.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
I'm sorry. The article does appear stupid to me, but I did fly off a little bit. I'm just not having a good day. The point appears to me to be that languages with line numbers and no OO are a better starting point than any modern language. I don't really agree. You can create a simple VB.NET project and write plenty of VB code, without having line numbers, which are only useful for arbitrary goto statements, something I don't think people need to learn about.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
I'm just not having a good day.
Eugenicists don't deserve to have a good day.
-
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Where's the BASIC of today.
Perl.
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
I have Turbo BASIC on 5.25" floppies. P.S. Also HP BASIC on my AlphaServers, but it's a shame that DEC abandoned the BASIC environment that I first learned on the high school's PDP-11. :sigh:
JB> type test.bas
10 A=5
20 B=4
30 C=A*B
40 PRINT C
50 END
JB> basic test.bas
JB> link test
JB> run test
20
JB>modified on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 8:46 PM
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
Perl.
line noise
-
I'm sorry. The article does appear stupid to me, but I did fly off a little bit. I'm just not having a good day. The point appears to me to be that languages with line numbers and no OO are a better starting point than any modern language. I don't really agree. You can create a simple VB.NET project and write plenty of VB code, without having line numbers, which are only useful for arbitrary goto statements, something I don't think people need to learn about.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
something I don't think people need to learn about
They should learn what not to do, and learning it in the first place is certainly a good start.
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
-
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
Sure. Run MS-DOS 6.22 ina virtual machine.
Haha, actually I technically learned to program using Visual Basic in high school. However, in that same class I discovered QuickBasic 4.5 (in DOS 6.22) and abandoned Visual Basic. It was a very fun language. :)
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
-
Is this the same "Jonny" I know who grew up watching Scooby-Doo right after he got out of bed, before he even had his breakfast sugar-and-carbs load, before he took his ritalin before going off to school with his iPod playing "death metal" with the volume set to stun ? The same Jonny who knows more about the family life of the Simpsons than about his parents ? The same Jonny who has the attention span of a gnat ? It sure sounds like him. best, Bill p.s. Marc : let's not leave out "turtle graphics" !
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844
BillWoodruff wrote:
turtle graphics
turn left: turn right 270 degrees :laugh:
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
-
Why Jonny Can't Code[^] I think this guy's got a point. Things are very, maybe too complex for simple PRINT "Hello World!" type programs today. A lot of today's technologies are not very approachable... You don't start out mountain climbing by first tackling Mt. Everest. You start out much much smaller and work up to Mt. Everest. Where's the BASIC of today. Can you even get BASIC nowadays?
ahmed zahmed wrote:
Where's the BASIC of today
Python or maybe Ruby probably fit the bill
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
-
Honestly I do not see what this guy's problem is ... he can simply go get FreeDOS and grab the Basic compiler from their available list of languages and run that in a VM, if he's that hard up to run an old version of basic like that. Or how about use a programming language specifically designed for kids? Like KPL[^]? The problem isn't the lack of machines to get kids interested, and it certainly isn't accessibility, since the internet has blown those doors wide ope, the real problem is a lack of kids that have a desire or interest in doing anything other playing video games, texting and updating Twitter with what they're doing now. But that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about those ...
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
Bad Astronomy |VCF|wxWidgets|WTLDitto. Programming is more accessible than ever. You could download Ruby and do "Hello World" in minutes. Or Python, or Visual Studio Express, or Java, or etc etc. There are simply too many distractions, and too much stigma with the geek/nerd label. And frankly I think computer science doesn't have the kind of "magic" it had way back (this is my impression of it because I'm not that old ;)). It's been commoditized.
-
Is this the same "Jonny" I know who grew up watching Scooby-Doo right after he got out of bed, before he even had his breakfast sugar-and-carbs load, before he took his ritalin before going off to school with his iPod playing "death metal" with the volume set to stun ? The same Jonny who knows more about the family life of the Simpsons than about his parents ? The same Jonny who has the attention span of a gnat ? It sure sounds like him. best, Bill p.s. Marc : let's not leave out "turtle graphics" !
"Many : not conversant with mathematical studies, imagine that because it [the Analytical Engine] is to give results in numerical notation, its processes must consequently be arithmetical, numerical, rather than algebraical and analytical. This is an error. The engine can arrange and combine numerical quantities as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and it fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly." Ada, Countess Lovelace, 1844
BillWoodruff wrote:
p.s. Marc : let's not leave out "turtle graphics" !
I was thinking about mentioning that! Marc
I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner
-
Christian Graus wrote:
something I don't think people need to learn about
They should learn what not to do, and learning it in the first place is certainly a good start.
Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.
Rubbish. Learning to rely on something is not learning not to do it. I've learned not to kill people, by understanding the issue and ,well, not killing anyone.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
Christian Graus wrote:
I'm just not having a good day.
Eugenicists don't deserve to have a good day.
CaptainSeeSharp wrote:
Eugenicists don't deserve to have a good day.
ROTFL !!! How come you have started to pollute the lounge with this ignorant drivel ? I mean, I was happy to play with your retarded views in the back room, is that not enough for you anymore ?
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
Ditto. Programming is more accessible than ever. You could download Ruby and do "Hello World" in minutes. Or Python, or Visual Studio Express, or Java, or etc etc. There are simply too many distractions, and too much stigma with the geek/nerd label. And frankly I think computer science doesn't have the kind of "magic" it had way back (this is my impression of it because I'm not that old ;)). It's been commoditized.
dighn wrote:
and do "Hello World" in minutes.
Not much beats: 10 Print "Hello World" run Marc
I'm not overthinking the problem, I just felt like I needed a small, unimportant, uninteresting rant! - Martin Hart Turner