Re: Squeak as HyperCard

["Ian Bicking" <bickiia@earlham.edu>]

> > There'd be a couple questions: compatibility with other Basic 
> > implementations (GW-Basic/BasicA, QuickBasic, PowerBasic...) 
> > so people could port old programs they might have made; language 
> > features along the lines of graphics and other interfaces; and the 
> > theoretical niceness of the language, which Basic has always been 
> > poor at, but in which there is a lot of variation (for instance, line 
> > numbers).
> >
> The question of the purpose of the Basic implementation comes up here.  Is it 
> primarily for porting previously written software to Linux, or is it for new 
> program development and training in programming.  For the former, compatability 
> is of most importance; for the latter, features are more important.  I'd say we 
> should go for the porting requirement mostly, as there are many better ways to 
> teach programming under Linux than with Basic.

Well, there's two kinds of things to be ported -- old programs and 
old knowledge.  If a teacher knows how to teach a Basic course, 
they might be reluctant to change languages (or textbooks, or 
whatever).  And if they have experience teaching Basic, they might 
teach a better class than if they taught Logo or C without any 
experience.  

Anyway, I wouldn't profer Basic as a prospective project.  But other 
people already thought it was worth doing, so all we'd need to do is 
describe what they did.  Seul-edu should be seen as enabling, 
rather than prescribing.



--
Ian Bicking <bickiia@earlham.edu>