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• Wednesday, September 13, 2006 06:44 PM

  The Web is the new Basic

  Any bright kid can start coding simple exercises in python or php, and the results display through a web browser. Using Google to uncover the many ways of accomplishing this is a fine challenge for young minds.

  Of course, there are graphics libraries and other things to contend with, but learning to code in Basic, with its GOTOs and line numbers, would be like learning to speak in archaic English.

  Modern coding has a fluidity and coherence which Basic can't match.

  Young minds are incredibly dynamic, and shouldn't be burdened with ancient models.

  Better to start with Smalltalk than Basic, or some other early OO language! But then there's Python, so why take a giant leap backwards?

  I wish I'd learned Python a few decades ago ;-)

  Some of the very finest programmers in the world today are in their early 20s, and already publishing books on their efforts.

  See Philipp von Weitershausen's Web Component Development with Zope 3 his site

  * http://worldcookery.com/

  and this interview

  * http://blogs.nuxeo.com/sections/blogs/tarek_ziade/2005_03_09_web_component/

  As Phillip says in the interview:

  """ I have been interested in computers since I was a teenager, started using Linux around kernel 2.0.18. The early PHP got me interested in web applications and I managed to work as a PHP programmer in the afternoons after school. Later, I discovered Zope and through it came to Python. """

  These are not Basic babies, as far as I can see!

  Johnny can't code because he watches too much TV, probably.

  Peter Fraterdeus

  http://www.fraterdeus.com

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  —suite219press Read suite219press's other letters
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