[Edu-sig] Re: easy for beginners, even children

[Christopher A. Craig]

"Daniel Ajoy" <dajoy at openworldlearning.org> writes:

> how do you have to write this in Python:
> 
> make "a 10
> if :a = 10 [make "a 20]

I admit, I don't know Logo, but I'd presume

a = 10
if a == 10:
  a = 20

It might be slightly easier on newcomers if Python had used := or
something for assignment rather than '=', but I don't think it's so
huge a deal that users would be better off with another language.
I'd, in fact, prefer the Python syntax to the above where variables
must be prefixed with a weird character to denote whether we want the
value or the location.

> I haven't learned Python yet because it seems something too big to learn 
> now. I'm more comfortable with small languages: bash, awk, logo

I would branch out were I you.  Those three languages have something
in common, they're all special purpose.  While I'd prefer awk to
anything else for some applications, it's not real useful in about
99.9% of situations, the same goes for bash.  (I don't know logo, but
based on what I've read, I wouldn't want to write a mail reader in
it.)

Interestingly, I also think all three of those have more syntax issues
than Python.  I'd highly recommend looking into
http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ if you haven't already.

-- 
Christopher A. Craig <com-nospam at ccraig.org>
"The world would be a better place if Larry Wall had been born in Iceland, 
 or any other country where the native language actually has syntax." 
                -- Peter da Silva (in alt.sysadmin.recovery)