Re: Rewrite BASIC language today?

On Apr 29, 2:44=A0am, "Tom Lake" <tl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Actually, developers shouldn't even be
> participating in this thread since y'all are programming
> geniuses (and no, I'm not being facetious!) and probably don't
> even remember what it was like to be totally clueless about
> what a programming language is and what it does.

Before becoming a 'developer' I was closely involved with the BBC's
Computer Literacy Project in selecting Acorn as a supplier and in
specifying BBC BASIC.  My (and the BBC's) concerns for the language at
that point were precisely the ones you espouse: suitability for
beginners and encouragement of good programming skills.  Inclusion of
'power' features for the sophisticated programmer came about partly
through Acorn's input and (much) later on when I developed BBC BASIC
for Windows.  None of those features make life harder for beginners.

So, I genuinely believe that because of its background and history BBC
BASIC really can claim to be an exception to the rule: it is *both*
well suited to the complete beginner *and* useful for virtually
anybody and for virtually any application.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/
To reply by email change 'news' to my forename.