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• Monday, May 7, 2007 02:44 PM

  Complexity kills

  I wholeheartedly enjoyed reading this article.

  I have numerous times discussed the problem (of easy access to programming tools) with friends over the last decade, but it seems a futile fight. The complexity of modern systems seems to force the tools to become more and more complex and abstract. Today universities produce hordes of candidates proficient in Java, but when something below goes wrong they're dumbfounded. I believe Joel Spolsky called this "The Law of Leaky Abstractions".

  I recall the halcyon days of programming on my Amstrad in BASIC, which, as on the C64, was available from the moment you turned on the machine. As a child this was heaven.

  But children today are, as you point out, met with an wall of complexity if they want to create or develop anything on their computers outside the confines of pre-engineered world (be it a game or online community). Consider the effort required to do a Hello World in C# or Java: "Please dad, explain what the meaning of 'public static void Main()' is once again".

  I must say I think people pointing out where you can download a BASIC interpreter is missing the point. The problem is not that one cannot find a BASIC interpreter nowadays. The problem is that it isn't as ubiquitous as in the past, where one could assume virtually everybody to be familiar with "AUTO 10" on their home computer.

  Another problem today is that a teacher teaching BASIC to his pupils/students will be met with scorn from his peers. Most will tell him "It's not a real programming language" or they will say "GOTO where?" and then laugh maniacally.

  I believe most teachers would decide to go with the current fad in programming languages, as to be considered "up-to-date" and "progressive".

  Should kids still want to toy around with BASIC programming, they're "forced" to surf the web to find the "best interpreter", which is unnecessary complexity for kids nowadays, when, after all, Microsoft and Apple could include it virtually for free. But with the short-sightedness of the modern enterprise, I assume the two companies have decided that catering to the kids of today (engineers of tomorrow!) is not a profitable business practice.

  I you, David Brin, would like to entertain your son on the C64, there's a lot of good games scanned from old "programming books" here:

  http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/

  http://www.atariarchives.org/morebasicgames/

  —Anders Vind Ebbesen Read Anders Vind Ebbesen's other letters
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