On 15 September 2012 20:07, Peter Merchant <[email protected]> wrote: > On 15/09/12 19:33, Adrian Warman wrote: >> >> I think Leo's recommendation is Python. >> >> In any event, I would also recommend it. It's platform-agnostic, it's >> used by big companies (Google, anyone?), it can be run in a simple, >> interpreter-like way (single line Basic, anyone?), it supports >> object-oriented programming, there's lots of documentation and >> examples freely available,... >> >> Adrian >> > Excellent reasons Adrian. I always have to ask, what do you want to do with > it? If you are wanting to access databases you would use a different > language than if you wanted to do machine control. Because the raspberry pi > uses Python, I am working with it to control the basic I/O functions, but > not yet at doing anything with USB devices. > > My python references are ' Byte of Python', and 'Dive into Python'. > > I like interpretive languages like Basic, Forth and Python for learning. > > I believe that there is an editor from which you can run your python and > then drop back to the editor, but I don't know what it is. It might be > Notepad++ in a W$ environment. > > Notepad++ and Kate both display text in different colours depending on their > function. > > Peter M. > > Peter M.
Personally I would have to agre that Python is a good choice for starting learning about software because it encourages good practices and it can actually take you a very long way. I use Scite to edit my Python because it is itself cross platform, it provides syntax colouring and you can compile / interpret your code from the Editor and if there is an error it will highlight the line with the error. I have Notepad++ on the work laptop that I'm writing on now and I've just looked for Compilation / Interpretation tools and I couldn't find any, (but I only looked quite quickly). Good luck to your grandson Clive. -- Cheers Peter -- Next meeting: 2012-10-?? 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread on mailing list: mailto:[email protected] How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
