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• Wednesday, September 13, 2006 08:40 PM

  I have encountered this problem in one form or another since college

  Dear Mr. Brin:

  The problem that you have encountered in attempting to teach your son Basic represents the logical conclusion to a problem I first encountered when I entered college in 1994.

  Back in 1993 and 1994, I was a skilled classroom programmer in what I suspect was the last period in which Basic was taught at public schools. I was good at it, and wished to become better when I entered college. Unfortunately, when I actually got to college I quickly learned that not only was Basic not taught- you were expected to be familiar with Unix, Irix, B, C, and other programming languages which simply did not have the same theoretical underpinnings and logical structures.

  Despite their arcane nature, I would have gladly learned them- if my college had been willing to teach me. Unfortunately, there were no courses for beginners- only for experts. Thus began my education in political science.

  Years later, when I finally decided that I wanted to try them anyway, I looked for the easiest programming language I could find. It was Microsoft Visual Basic 6. A good, solid program available in student version for several hundred dollars, available in commercial version for... over a thousand dollars. And immediately replaced by Microsoft Visual Basic.Net, whereupon ALL copies of VB 6 were withdrawn from production.

  Simply put, the phraseology used to introduce and instruct on even INSTALLING Visual Basic.Net is terrifying. Without ever actually dwelling upon the fact that VB.Net is in fact a 'language' used to make 'programs', the manual implies that advanced knowledge of installing network servers and proxy servers is necessary before you can even begin using it. It talks about 'building applications', 'retrieving databases', and 'creating XML webpages', and gives the impression that if you're not already a graduate with a degree in servicing computers, you shouldn't even bother. It scared me away, and I have a college degree and a law degree. I cannot imagine any child reading this stuff and still being willing to give learning VB.Net a try.

  Sincerely,

  Michael B. English

  —Michael B. English Read Michael B. English's other letters
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