Why Python is like BASIC (and why this is a good thing)

[Roy Smith]

daniels at mindspring.com (Alan Daniels) wrote:
> I *do* know several very capable programmers who started with GW-Basic
> back in the day, and they now work in C++/Java/Perl/My Favorite Language
> just fine.

Actually, basic was my 2nd language.  I started programming some big HP 
thing that was sort of a cross between an oversized desk calculator and a 
small computer.  9830 maybe?  Programs were written as a series of 
keystrokes.  My brain seems to have survived.  RPN, of course.  We had the 
optional pen plotter, which was pretty cool.

> They just need to unlearn the habits of using globals and
> variants everywhere.

Tell me about it.  After many years of resisting learning Perl, I was 
finally forced into it at a new job about a year ago.  The syntax is 
horrible (if you can have syntactic sugar, can you also have syntactic 
vinegar?) but the real thing that blew my mind was the pervasive use of 
globals.  I took over maintenance of a 1000+ line perl program that did all 
of its inter-routine communication with globals.  I've been hacking at it 
for a year and still don't understand what everything does.  Talk about a 
first language that can destroy your brain.

If you're looking for interesting programming languages to explore, you 
should give postscript a try.  I'm not sure I would advocate its use for 
anything but printing, but it's a facsinating departure from what most 
people are used to.  In some ways, it's an like an RPN version of Python, 
without the class machinery.  Or maybe it's closer to Ruby :-)