Once you have Java (as on the sharp) you can use Jpython which is the version of Python that compiles to Java byte codes.
Without a doubt Python is my scripting language of choice, but I agree with the post suggesting that the API's you have to work with are more important as they determine how much work you have to do to make your program run.
As for the post suggesting that one doesn't want to program on the PDA, I would agree. In general you want to create an program (even a small one) and deploy it to your PDA. But if you ever wanted to program it would be a scripting language rather than something like Java.
This is a review of the report that was done by IIT Research Institute and none of the
authors work for IIT Research. If you do not like the report you should be happy that some notable people like Blaze took the time to point out the limitations of the report.
There was an interesting article in Foreign Policy (note the links on their home page are broken) by Joshua Fishman which suggests that the same forces that increase use of English also increase use of regional languages [e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Hausa (West Africa), Spanish, Swahili (East Africa)]. Not only that, but that the use of English is a function of social class.
He asks:
What is to become of English? It may well gravitate increasingly toward the higher social classes, as those of more modest status turn to regional languages for more modest gains. Or it might become widely disliked as a linguistic bully, even as it is widely learned. Resentment of both the predominance of English and of its tendency to spread along class lines could in the long term prove a check against its further globalization.
For myself I still feel the frustration that other geeks have expressed to me in the poor quality of communication that resulted from a number of years of studying just one foreign language and the thought that there were undoubtably many delightful nuances contained in that or any of the thousands of other world languages that I was never going to get.
After reading about the people trying to preserve dying languages (Whole Earth, Spring 2000), I came to think that everyone should have a local language that ties them to their own culture and then another regional/global language. Fishman suggests that these languages will have different functions (cultural identity, religion, commerce etc.) If these languages are around children from their early days, then learning these languages will presumably not be the problem it was for me.
I am prepared to believe this kind of mental flexibility is an intellectual benefit. But, I would be interested in a comment from/. readers in Quebec or some other heavily bilingual country. I have been given to understand that there are parts of Quebec for which it is difficult to speak in English. Is that true? If so, is it (solely) a cultural resentment of English or is biligualism realy tough for lots of people? Do geeks in Quebec have trouble with multiple languages?
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If someone speaks three languages they are trilingual, if they speak two languages they are bilingual, if they only speak one language they are American.
I just got excited by an informal experiment suggesting that even kids in the poorest parts of India can learn a lot about computers by just fooling around (in groups). From a Business Week interview with New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra
I heard Allan Kay suggest that in all cultures about 10% of the population had an interest in how things work. I wonder if the boys and girls that are using this computer are drawn from that 10% or if they represent a more general cross section. Or perhaps they represent a group with lots of time on thier hands because of not being able to go to school
If this is a general finding, then it suggests that allowing kids to play in interesting environments is a good a strategy -- As educators have often suggested. The Web is an interesting environment.
I do not think this kind of exploration will teach most kids detailed academic specialties (one post mentioned FETs and math), but then I do not think most kids learn learn detailed academic specialties in high school anyway. But then again some will.
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Without a doubt Python is my scripting language of choice, but I agree with the post suggesting that the API's you have to work with are more important as they determine how much work you have to do to make your program run.
As for the post suggesting that one doesn't want to program on the PDA, I would agree. In general you want to create an program (even a small one) and deploy it to your PDA. But if you ever wanted to program it would be a scripting language rather than something like Java.
This is a review of the report that was done by IIT Research Institute and none of the authors work for IIT Research. If you do not like the report you should be happy that some notable people like Blaze took the time to point out the limitations of the report.
He asks:
For myself I still feel the frustration that other geeks have expressed to me in the poor quality of communication that resulted from a number of years of studying just one foreign language and the thought that there were undoubtably many delightful nuances contained in that or any of the thousands of other world languages that I was never going to get.After reading about the people trying to preserve dying languages (Whole Earth, Spring 2000), I came to think that everyone should have a local language that ties them to their own culture and then another regional/global language. Fishman suggests that these languages will have different functions (cultural identity, religion, commerce etc.) If these languages are around children from their early days, then learning these languages will presumably not be the problem it was for me.
I am prepared to believe this kind of mental flexibility is an intellectual benefit. But, I would be interested in a comment from /. readers in Quebec or some other heavily bilingual country. I have been given to understand that there are parts of Quebec for which it is difficult to speak in English. Is that true? If so, is it (solely) a cultural resentment of English or is biligualism realy tough for lots of people? Do geeks in Quebec have trouble with multiple languages?
----------------
If someone speaks three languages they are trilingual, if they speak two languages they are bilingual, if they only speak one language they are American.
I heard Allan Kay suggest that in all cultures about 10% of the population had an interest in how things work. I wonder if the boys and girls that are using this computer are drawn from that 10% or if they represent a more general cross section. Or perhaps they represent a group with lots of time on thier hands because of not being able to go to school
If this is a general finding, then it suggests that allowing kids to play in interesting environments is a good a strategy -- As educators have often suggested. The Web is an interesting environment.
I do not think this kind of exploration will teach most kids detailed academic specialties (one post mentioned FETs and math), but then I do not think most kids learn learn detailed academic specialties in high school anyway. But then again some will.