Re: [seul-edu] Long, long ago...

[Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>]

At 08:49 PM 4/4/00 -0700, bgfay wrote [in part]:
>Is there something like the old Basic that I could use in my math classroom to
>teach kids about basic algorithms?
>
>I got to thinking of this last week when a friend and I were trying to remember
>what the summation of 1/x evaluated from x=0 to x=infinity is. I remember
>writing a very simple loop in middle school to figure this out ...

Interesting question. There is a Basic for Linux somewhere ... I actually
installed it on a system 3 or 4 years ago ... but I don't remember much
about it.

Probably your best bet is to use one of the languages that is, sort of,
halfway between scripting and a fully-compiled language. Perl and Python are
the obvious candidates. Perl is part of every standard Linux distribution I
know about, and Python is also widely available. 

For uses in math, perl has the advantage of having a lot of specialized
packages to do, for example, high-precision arithmetic. The O'Reilly books
(Programming Perl and Perl Cookbook) are a good way to learn the language
quickly (assuming you already know how to program), and the Perl community
is active enough that a lot of code is available online.

I don't program in Python myself, but its regular users are vocally happy
with it. It's newer than Perl and, to my eye, has a real shot as replacing
perl as the main scripting language used on Unix/Linux systems.

Other, more specialized possibilities to consider, are --

        -- Forth (stack-based, RPN ... similar to PostScript 
                if you are familiar with it); 

        -- Squeak (kind of a descendant of SmallTalk); and 

        -- (of course) Java.

        -- TCL/TK (good interface to the X11 GUI)



------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski                                        -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA           	 	         ray@comarre.com        
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