Re:Fortran is easy to learn
by ravenstine on Saturday January 08, 2022 @12:15AM
(#29848830)
That's exactly why it took me ages to finally get into other programming languages besides QBASIC and Visual Basic, and primitive ES3 era JavaScript. I'd try to learn C, but it was immediately obvious that there would be a long road to doing anything interesting. If I could easily do I/O with QBASIC, it was hard to justify spending hours reading a bunch of boring books to do the same thing with C/C++.
Looking back, I think QBASIC/QuickBasic had it right in contrast to other learning languages. You don't need a DSL, turtle graphics, drag-and-drop code blocks, or any of that stuff to teach programming. Just make the hurdle to getting useful input and output minimal, and the prospective programmer can take it from there.
On the other hand, I do wish I had been able to pick up things like C much earlier in life. Only recently did I actually learn C++ in my 30s, even though part of me wanted to learn it when I was 9. I think that things like QBASIC can also be a sort of trap because if the I/O is so easy then it can be difficult to leave it for something that actually is better but not in an obvious way to a novice.
Looking back, I think QBASIC/QuickBasic had it right in contrast to other learning languages. You don't need a DSL, turtle graphics, drag-and-drop code blocks, or any of that stuff to teach programming. Just make the hurdle to getting useful input and output minimal, and the prospective programmer can take it from there.
On the other hand, I do wish I had been able to pick up things like C much earlier in life. Only recently did I actually learn C++ in my 30s, even though part of me wanted to learn it when I was 9. I think that things like QBASIC can also be a sort of trap because if the I/O is so easy then it can be difficult to leave it for something that actually is better but not in an obvious way to a novice.