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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
I don't program anymore -- I haven't in 17 years (since I started law school). What programming at a BASIC level provided me, however, has proved invaluable to me as a lawyer. Understanding logic -- that you can solve large and complex problems through IFs, ORs, ANDs and GOTOs -- is invaluable regardless of one's career path. Even more valuable is the understanding that a machine (which most of us must use as part of our jobs) does not have a mind of its own -- it does what it is told to do. When a program that you write does not work as intended, it is not the machine's fault -- the program writer did something wrong -- the logic of the writer went astray somewhere. Nothing imposes the same level of intellectual accountability that programing does. My dad (who worked with those FORTRAN punch cards) forced all of us kids to write programs in BASIC to solve all types of math and accounting problems as junior high kids (this was in the late 70s -- we had an old WANG computer and then an Osborne PC). None of us kids developed into scientists, engineers, or computer programmers (we are doctors, teachers and lawyers), but we do all understand how computers and logic work, which makes us far more effective in our chosen lines of work. My kids, despite their ability to use the internet, email, and computer games, have no such understanding.
Sorry... It sounds a bit snarky, I know, but if you've really been looking for basic, or some other line programming language for three years, then I wonder why, inside of ten minutes I was able to find 77 different flavours of basic free for download for both the Mac and the PC. I think Logo is more relevant and satisfying for younger kids, and lo, there are far more flavours of Logo available than there are versions of basic.
...inside of ten minutes!
So I ask, in answer to the question of "Why Johnny can't code": Why can't Johnny's dad use the web? Google is such a wonderful thing.
With all respect.
-caleb
By the time Johnny grows up, there won't be a software development industry in the West - it'll all be in India and South East Asia.
Parents may as well teach Johnny how to use a sliderule - it'll be just as obsolete.
As textbook Gen X'er, I had my first computer, an Apple II+ (48K RAM!!) in 1982, did a little BASIC programming with my friends. Moved up to a Mac in College, then an AT/XT in an internship in 1988 (Lotus 2.01!). I remember that everything was just a little too hard. Just printing Landscape was a tedious chore that often crashed the computer. Thank God we don't live in those days anymore. But like Mr. Brin's automotive example of the WWII generation - it really taught us how to understand computers. We *really* wanted to harness the power, and could see the possibilites, but often first we had to get under the hood a little. It's so much easier and better now. However. In the business world I see a lot of 20 somethings that are great at IM, text messaging, and feel absolutely at home sitting in front of a screen all day. But something is missing. For all the ballyhoo about how this generation will be great at computing - what they really are great at is their comfort level with a GUI. And that's about it. No essential curiosity, no exploration, no poking around trying to figure out how to do something in the essential business apps (excel, word, powerpoint). More importantly than typing the code and watching the dots move on the screen was the debugging process. Trying to figure out *why* this wasn't working. Finding the solution was such a valuable process - and often revealed a level of processing possibilites not understood before. If all you came up with is a web browser where you point and click at everything - there's no fundamental power over what you are doing - and all curiosity is quashed. And because it's all sealed up, if it doesn't work, or you want to do something else - you're thwarted, there's no poking around under the hood - so giving up is rewarded. It's sad. I would never wish anyone to ever have to deal with a computer crashing just because they wanted to print landscape. But there has to be a way to impart those valuable lessons and critical thinking skills to the next generation.
I have written tens of thousands of lines of BASIC code on everything from a UNIVAC 1108 to an Apple II and I am rather fond of the language. Over about the last 10 years I noticed that programming was getting less and less fun. I was spending all my time looking up objects in the documentation instead of writing code.
This lead me to the realization that when I used to program in BASIC everything was built into the language. One manual, one interface, one way of doing things. Simple things were simple to do and hard things were proportionally harder. The languages I use today have almost nothing built into the language. Even printing a simple line of text requires that I #include the correct library and learn the ins and outs of the IO library. What ever happend to
PRINT I, J
And it spreads into other areas as well. In the bad old days I would code a quick BASIC script to do a financial calulation. Now, I have to use a spread sheet, or spend too long coding it up in Java or C++.
Of course, the problem is that you have to add a *LOT* to a language to be able to write modern applications. And the market for programming languages (even free ones) is for application developers, not kids. I have spent a few hours a week over the last three years playing with designs for a language aimed to solve this problem. I want to make programming fun again. I want to make it usable by kids and adults. Will I ever do it? Maybe. :-)
I do have one question for you, why are you so intent on line oriented languages? My experience is that forcing a language to match up with lines of text causes a lot of confusion. There always has to be a way to cross a line boundry. So, I was surprised by you focus on that type of language. On the other hand I am an old fart and computers were mostly science fiction when I was in junior high. (Oh, the existed, but no one had one. They cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars back then.) I do teach game programming so I thought I was in touch with the youth point of view on this subject.
Bob Pendleton
P.S.
I've loved your writing ever since I first saw you in Analog. Looking forward to anything you write.
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