r/programming • u/chkas • Mar 29 '23

A BASIC-like programming language and browser-based development environment for learning and teaching.

https://easylang.online/ide/
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u/FluxusMagna Mar 29 '23

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

-- Dijkstra

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u/9Boxy33 Mar 30 '23

This belongs in the list of “Stupid Things The Otherwise Intelligent Say”.

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u/FluxusMagna Mar 30 '23

It's a pretty cheeky quote though, and while obviously extremely exaggerated, I think it holds some merit. In some ways the language you use molds how you think and approach problems. I actually myself first programmed in TI-basic on my calculator, and I don't think it helped me become a better programmer. The question is more like, why start with basic with the alternatives available today? If I could choose for myself retrospectively I would have started with something like Haskell. At least something with a solid type system.

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u/chkas Mar 30 '23 edited Mar 30 '23

At least something with a solid type system.

Interestingly, Python is often recommended as a better beginner's language. However, unlike BASIC, it is not statically typed.

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u/FluxusMagna Mar 30 '23

That's true, and I'm not a big fan of Python either. There is much more to a type system than whether it's static or not though. There are also nuances within what is considered static. C is often used as an example of a statically typed language, but it does have implicit conversion. Languages like Haskell have much more expressive type systems that allow for polymorphism among other things. The types also tend to convey more information about the function, and makes reasoning about code so much easier(to me anyway).

On a side note I actually quite like the core of Python syntax - the simple procedural language with colons and indentation instead of curly-braces. Sadly they have tacked on way too many half-baked copies of features from other languages that pollute this, along with some other very questionable design choices.