You didn't bother to explain how learning basic can cripple someones mind. That's what I was really interested in.
Anyhow, I address your specific objections below. None of which apply to modern versions of the language.
1. No long variable names. The C64 allowed variables of any length, but only considered the first two characters to be significant (the rest were ignored). GW-Basic (1983) allowed 40 character variable names (where all the characters were significant)
2. No local variables. That's not entirely true. For example, the following program:
DEF FNSQR(X) = X*X LET X=5 PRINT FNSQR(10), X
Outputs: 100 5
Of course, that's just for unstructured versions of basic. Every structured basic I've seen has proper scope rules. (FYI, structured basic has been around longer than the personal computer.)
3. No Recursion. A valid objection, though modern versions of basic don't suffer this limitation. It should also be noted that it's trivial to convert a recursive function to one using iteration. (Example) It's often a good idea.
4. GOSUB instead of true procedure calls. Break out the old assembly book and check out CALL/RET! Seriously, it's obviously not an issue an any structured basic (which necessarily has "true" procedure calls).
5. No structures. It has all the coolest control structures, if that's what you mean. Do you mean records? (example in c: struct x {int a; char b[5]; float b;}; ) Explain yourself!
It still doesn't explain why basic is a poor choice for a first language. It was the first language of millions of first-rate programmers (that is to say, their minds were not permanently injured!). What about basic makes it such a poor choice? Is it the name that bugs you?
Are you being serious? Basic was designed to be an introductory language. What makes it 'terrible'?
I'm not sure what you mean by "it is very limited". Even the unstructured basic on the C64 is Turing complete.
As to your assertion: "forever stilt your understanding of how computers work" I'm sure that there are millions of 30-somethings that learned basic on their 80's home computers who would beg to differ. I'd be interested to know how learning anything (let alone a programming language) would forever hamper your ability to learn something else.
Better yet, I'd love to hear your answer taken a step further to your "and what you can do with them". Can you image what such a person would be like? Some one who was perpetually inhibited from conceiving of new computer applications? "I learned Basic on my BBC Micro and now I can't even understand what a spell checker is." Give me a break.
On the topic, I think a Basic with an interactive mode (like Python has) would make an excellent introductory language. (Logo would also be a good choice for the same, painfully obvious, reasons.)
You can't tell just by looking at the prescription alone. Use the following checklist to see if you've got a placebo:
I went to the E.R. because I have: [ ] a cold/flu [ ] muscle aches/other very mild pain [ ] frequent mild headaches that I call 'migraines' [ ] a mysterious rash [ ] no idea what 'emergency' means
Count the number of items you checked. If the total number is one or greater, you've got a placebo!
If you want an Education, go to the liberal arts college. If you want Job Training, go to the tech school.
From your description, it seems you get more theory at the liberal arts college. A solid grounding in CS theory is what separates a good programmer from a great programmer.
You could try the Firefox Accessibility Extension for your web work. The "style" option let's you quickly switch to a b/w or w/b color scheme. It's saved my poor eyes on more than one occasion!
Believe it or not, I am still struggling to make ends meet This is because you make poor financial decisions. Try living at or below your means. Go out to eat less, drive a used car (not a new buy or lease), move to a more affordable neighborhood. Have kids? You should have had fewer children and saved 40-50k before having each (it would only take a few years for someone making half of what you make). Have a mortgage? You should have saved to buy a more modest home instead.
Heres an example. If you make 80k, married with no children you can VERY easily live on 40k (with modest accommodation). In 5 years you'll have saved >200k. That's pay-cash for a $100k home and enough saved for emergency or incidental expenses for two children. (100k for a home seems very low, but it's enough for a good home in most parts of the north east if you don't mind living in a suburb or rural area.) or a 150k home and one child. (Two, if you wait a year in between them.;) or a 200k home for an extra year of saving. Hey, how about continuing to save anyhow? You can make a nice retirement for yourself and send your kids to a top 10 school if you're just willing to live below your means!)
When my wife and I were first married, we found we found we could live on ~10k a year (That's was a ridiculously small apartment, two cars, and an hour commute for her to finish her undergrad work.) We were able to save quite a bit of money living like we made almost nothing. We spend a bit more now, but still live on less than half our income -- because we know the benefits of having a large savings in both the short and long term.
We live by two simple rules:
Do without. If you don't need it, don't buy it. (This rule gets broken here and there, but that's okay)
Don't buy anything on credit. (This has yet to be broken. The only debts we have are some student loans.)
Needless to say, we don't struggle to make ends meet.
Here's one basic, freakin' obvious rule: if a human, at any time at all, has to read or manually edit an XML document, you're doing it wrong. Human readability is one of the oldest "selling points" for XML (and SGML, for that matter). If the format isn't indented to be human readable, why not a binary format instead?
The fact that XML is often difficult (sometimes impossible) for humans to read and manipulate is a failure of XML to meet it's design goals.
It doesn't matter, at present, if two works are similar or identical. If two people happen to write the exact same poem, BOTH people are entitled to, and hold, copyright.
Your music example is easier to understand. If an orchestra records a performance of Beethoven's 9th, the orchestra holds the copyright on that recording. If a different orchestra records the same tune, it holds the copyright on its nearly indistinguishable recording.
I don't see why we'd need special "look and feel" regulations just because the term drops from 120 to 5 years -- especially considering that existing copyright law handles examples like yours already.
This is closer to plagiarism. The copyright violation is just an unfortunate consequence of passing off this work as their own. Unlawfully downloading a video is very different from claiming ownership of and redistributing a video.
You can add a 2GB SD card. That helps out quite a bit. It'll store far more than anyone would need for it's intended purpose. Now, if they had placed the card slot in a BETTER location...
Apparently, you didn't bother to read the review. This could have saved you a troll mod.
Second, the video showed it used by a university student so I presume a biology textbook is well within the intended use. Color is essential but again, 16 colors is likely enough.
I'm guessing you're too young to remember working with 16 color displays. It doesn't offer much. Also, I'd hardly call color "essential".
They also claim it connects to things like Wikipedia, so it has some net connectivity somewhere. If not, it needs that feature badly. You should have read the review before posting random nonsense:
Amazon integrated a 3G cellular radio into the Kindle and uses its new Whispernet EvDO service to wirelessly transmit e-books to the Kindle. You don't need a PC to make a purchase: Just browse the Kindle store and download your reading material. Notably, no service charges or contracts are involved--Amazon covers all of that in the background.
Also, I'd like to know what makes you question if it has "net connectivity". How else do you expect it to access wikipedia?
It is nice that you can attach notes. How do you do that without touch screen? This point makes me curious. If it is typing, then we are back to impossibly slow interface. How do you attach notes without a touch screen? Think about it, for just a moment, it's not that hard to figure out. Also, when did the keyboard become an "impossibly slow interface"?
And I agree, $400 is fine for a first run product. I am talking about what this will need to be the end all be all reader. Cheaper with more functionality. I'd say that a $400 device with a FREE EvDO data connection is unimaginably inexpensive. Check out what a treo or blackberry would set you back both for the device and the data connection. That should help put this in perspective.
So, yes, both this and your previous post looked like a troll to me. Still does. Especially this most recent post, as you've had lot's of time to go back and READ to find out why you might be considered a troll.
Slashdot Mirror
Billions of theists disagree with you. Though I'm curious as to how Google is discriminating against people who hold your particular set of beliefs.
Not a bad idea. Keep things separate but equal.
Turn on automatic updating.
The ACM doesn't count?
Is this flamebait or are you being serious?
You didn't bother to explain how learning basic can cripple someones mind. That's what I was really interested in.
Anyhow, I address your specific objections below. None of which apply to modern versions of the language.
1. No long variable names.
The C64 allowed variables of any length, but only considered the first two characters to be significant (the rest were ignored). GW-Basic (1983) allowed 40 character variable names (where all the characters were significant)
2. No local variables.
That's not entirely true.
For example, the following program:
DEF FNSQR(X) = X*X
LET X=5
PRINT FNSQR(10), X
Outputs: 100 5
Of course, that's just for unstructured versions of basic. Every structured basic I've seen has proper scope rules. (FYI, structured basic has been around longer than the personal computer.)
3. No Recursion.
A valid objection, though modern versions of basic don't suffer this limitation. It should also be noted that it's trivial to convert a recursive function to one using iteration. (Example) It's often a good idea.
4. GOSUB instead of true procedure calls.
Break out the old assembly book and check out CALL/RET! Seriously, it's obviously not an issue an any structured basic (which necessarily has "true" procedure calls).
5. No structures.
It has all the coolest control structures, if that's what you mean.
Do you mean records? (example in c: struct x {int a; char b[5]; float b;}; )
Explain yourself!
It still doesn't explain why basic is a poor choice for a first language. It was the first language of millions of first-rate programmers (that is to say, their minds were not permanently injured!). What about basic makes it such a poor choice? Is it the name that bugs you?
Are you being serious? Basic was designed to be an introductory language. What makes it 'terrible'?
I'm not sure what you mean by "it is very limited". Even the unstructured basic on the C64 is Turing complete.
As to your assertion: "forever stilt your understanding of how computers work" I'm sure that there are millions of 30-somethings that learned basic on their 80's home computers who would beg to differ. I'd be interested to know how learning anything (let alone a programming language) would forever hamper your ability to learn something else.
Better yet, I'd love to hear your answer taken a step further to your "and what you can do with them". Can you image what such a person would be like? Some one who was perpetually inhibited from conceiving of new computer applications? "I learned Basic on my BBC Micro and now I can't even understand what a spell checker is." Give me a break.
On the topic, I think a Basic with an interactive mode (like Python has) would make an excellent introductory language. (Logo would also be a good choice for the same, painfully obvious, reasons.)
I noticed this as well. I guess we just needed a new minority group to oppress.
Frequency-following responses are pretty well established. How the poster can claim otherwise is beyond me.
This paper from the 1970's addresses the problems the parent claims have simply gone unnoticed: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/169/3951/1222
If you're interested in the topic, do what the parent is apparently incapable of doing: a literature review!
You can't tell just by looking at the prescription alone. Use the following checklist to see if you've got a placebo:
I went to the E.R. because I have:
[ ] a cold/flu
[ ] muscle aches/other very mild pain
[ ] frequent mild headaches that I call 'migraines'
[ ] a mysterious rash
[ ] no idea what 'emergency' means
Count the number of items you checked. If the total number is one or greater, you've got a placebo!
Having worked with both, I've found that MathML leaves you begging for TeX.
Even if it were superior (which it is undoubtedly not) it's not terribly useful for anything outside the web.
Of course, you do realize there's more to TeX than just the math bits right? TeX is a complete typesetting system!
Really? I thought it was about as good as a line editor could get. It beats the line editor I used today for ActivePython hands down.
If you want an Education, go to the liberal arts college. If you want Job Training, go to the tech school.
From your description, it seems you get more theory at the liberal arts college. A solid grounding in CS theory is what separates a good programmer from a great programmer.
You could try the Firefox Accessibility Extension for your web work. The "style" option let's you quickly switch to a b/w or w/b color scheme. It's saved my poor eyes on more than one occasion!
Heres an example. If you make 80k, married with no children you can VERY easily live on 40k (with modest accommodation). In 5 years you'll have saved >200k. That's pay-cash for a $100k home and enough saved for emergency or incidental expenses for two children. (100k for a home seems very low, but it's enough for a good home in most parts of the north east if you don't mind living in a suburb or rural area.) or a 150k home and one child. (Two, if you wait a year in between them.
When my wife and I were first married, we found we found we could live on ~10k a year (That's was a ridiculously small apartment, two cars, and an hour commute for her to finish her undergrad work.) We were able to save quite a bit of money living like we made almost nothing. We spend a bit more now, but still live on less than half our income -- because we know the benefits of having a large savings in both the short and long term.
We live by two simple rules:
Needless to say, we don't struggle to make ends meet.
The fact that XML is often difficult (sometimes impossible) for humans to read and manipulate is a failure of XML to meet it's design goals.
Says the Anonymous Coward...
Infra-red light, like visible light, is a form of electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength tells you nothing about the dose, however.
The implication "radiation is bad and causes cancer" is glib and meaningless.
month/day/year format is very common in the United States.
See this link
What university, if you don't mind me asking? I was taught the same way many years ago.
It doesn't matter, at present, if two works are similar or identical. If two people happen to write the exact same poem, BOTH people are entitled to, and hold, copyright.
Your music example is easier to understand. If an orchestra records a performance of Beethoven's 9th, the orchestra holds the copyright on that recording. If a different orchestra records the same tune, it holds the copyright on its nearly indistinguishable recording.
I don't see why we'd need special "look and feel" regulations just because the term drops from 120 to 5 years -- especially considering that existing copyright law handles examples like yours already.
This is closer to plagiarism. The copyright violation is just an unfortunate consequence of passing off this work as their own. Unlawfully downloading a video is very different from claiming ownership of and redistributing a video.
You can add a 2GB SD card. That helps out quite a bit. It'll store far more than anyone would need for it's intended purpose. Now, if they had placed the card slot in a BETTER location...
I'm guessing you're too young to remember working with 16 color displays. It doesn't offer much. Also, I'd hardly call color "essential". They also claim it connects to things like Wikipedia, so it has some net connectivity somewhere. If not, it
needs that feature badly. You should have read the review before posting random nonsense:
Also, I'd like to know what makes you question if it has "net connectivity". How else do you expect it to access wikipedia? It is nice that you can attach notes. How do you do that without touch screen? This point makes me curious.
If it is typing, then we are back to impossibly slow interface. How do you attach notes without a touch screen? Think about it, for just a moment, it's not that hard to figure out. Also, when did the keyboard become an "impossibly slow interface"? And I agree, $400 is fine for a first run product. I am talking about what this will need to be the end all be all
reader. Cheaper with more functionality. I'd say that a $400 device with a FREE EvDO data connection is unimaginably inexpensive. Check out what a treo or blackberry would set you back both for the device and the data connection. That should help put this in perspective.
So, yes, both this and your previous post looked like a troll to me. Still does. Especially this most recent post, as you've had lot's of time to go back and READ to find out why you might be considered a troll.
Exactly, $400 bucks for this is ... dirt cheap!
Oh, Santa! Has my wife done her shopping yet?