
Qb.js: An implementation of QBASIC in Javascript (part 1) - niyazpk
http://stevehanov.ca/blog/index.php?id=92
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daeken
This is just downright cool. I look back at my childhood and one thing stands
out to me, with respect to programming: I was able to sit down at the Apple
][E in my kindergarten class and start writing games with no knowledge of
programming. All I had was a ridiculously bad book on BASIC from the school
library and an immediate feedback loop. Kids these days don't seem to have
that. Programming languages have gotten considerably easier to use, but the
environment and the libraries just aren't there.

Now, I'm not proposing that kids should be learning QBASIC, but with all of
the technology we have these days, why can't a kid browse to a website and get
an environment in which they can experiment and create something, with the
instantaneous feedback that I appreciated when I was getting started? I know
there's been some talk of things like this in the past, but has anything come
of it? If not, what were the problems that were faced?

I'd love for my (not yet existent) kids to be able to open up a browser and be
able to start writing code. I'd love for them to have _fun_ doing it, the way
I did when I was young.

~~~
axod
>> "Now, I'm not proposing that kids should be learning QBASIC"

Why not? I think BASIC is a fairly good first language. I'd bet quite a few of
our generation started out using basica,gwbasic, or one of the home computer
basics.

~~~
Dobbs
As someone who actually uses Quickbasic I strongly disagree. (We use
quickbasic to deal with custom counters and data manipulation by project. Data
processing for political surveys.)

Quickbasic made sense back in the day where you had limited graphical and
sound power. When you booted a computer and you got a basic command prompt.
When you learned the basics of computers and programming by typing in programs
from magazines.

Basic does not make sense in today's world. It is complicated unnecessarily
and it doesn't have some of the advantages that more modern languages like
Ruby and Python have. It doesn't have the library support that these languages
have that allow you to easily do things like build web pages, simple media
players, and other such things with ease.

~~~
axod
I think for a start, we should teach new programmers to not be language snobs.
To value their programming ability far higher than any particular language.
Creating new programming languages isn't hard, that's why there's so many of
the things.

~~~
Dobbs
It has nothing to do with snobbery it has to do with getting people
interested. My little sister will be more likely to keep programming if she
can build a website in as little time as possible.

Once she has done that she will slowly expand learning more and more.
Quickbasic doesn't have that ability it doesn't have the libraries to allow an
easy start.

This is beyond the fact that the language itself makes it difficult to things
that are simple in other languages.

