Re:Most(ly dead) Influential Programming Languages
by nemo1618 on Thursday March 26, 2020 @10:13AM
(#22693734)
Same. My TI-BASIC magnum opus was 527 lines of spaghetti code, implementing dozens of nested menus for solving any trigonometry problem I was assigned. I honestly think that this is one of the best ways to introduce programming to a kid: "Hey, that math homework looks pretty tedious...wouldn't it be nice if your calculator could do all the work for you?"
Re:Most(ly dead) Influential Programming Languages
by gen220 on Thursday March 26, 2020 @11:26AM
(#22694469)
My story is similar to the OP's. Started with TI-BASIC, and downgraded to Java for a programming class. :)
It turns out, you can actually write programs in TI-BASIC on a computer, and sync the file to the calculator with the usb connector.
I used to charge kids in my class for copies of my games (Snake, and a Zork-esque text adventure). a lot of early business lessons there, in retrospect.
It was just enough of a push. Small programs and games were fine and I actually got really used to the keyboard (I can still type on it pretty quickly these days). For longer programs I def. remember wanting to program with more monitor real estate and not having to rely on GOTOs. That's how I started to learn Python, which I still use daily.