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Re:Microsoft Small Basic by int_19h on Sunday May 14, 2023 @10:20PM (#35943200)
I would argue that introducing such concepts in easy to understand ways is the task of the IDE for such learning languages. E.g. Thonny does a great job of explaining how locals work during debugging by using a multi-window mode where each stack frame gets a separate window that shows just that function's code (with current statement highlighted) and its locals. It also takes care of recursion - you can easily see how every recursive call adds a new window, and each window has its own set of variables.
Re:Microsoft Small Basic by analog31 on Sunday May 14, 2023 @10:52PM (#35943417)
Ah, I had forgotten about Thonny. For a while it seemed like they weren't keeping up with Python versions.

Hmmm... even after just a few minutes, I'm impressed. I prefer to use beginner tools for my own work, even though I'm actually quite experienced, because it gives me a chance to familiarize myself with the things that I would actually recommend to beginners.

Also, it reminds me of another thing, which is that not just the language but also the tooling, can be a source of abstraction and frustration.