Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-29 Thread Edward Cherlin
On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 2:36 PM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 28.09.2009, at 17:36, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112) wrote: J, like APL, sadly does not get the publicity that it deserves. A fate it shares with other nice languages. Like, err,

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Jim Simmons
in Java. I have my own gripes about Python but since my own requirements are similar to those Caryl was asking for Python is what I use. James Simmons Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:43:26 -0400 From: Albert Cahalan acaha...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [IAEP] Which Language? To: cbige...@hotmail.com

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112)
Jim Simmons, in part: The original question was about developing Activities for a classroom assignment, with the idea that these Activities could be widely distributed. If (big IF) J will run on XO, labs is a built in feature of J. Ken Iverson had his stroke at 83 while at the keyboard

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Martin Dengler
On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 11:08:56AM -0400, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112) wrote: Jim Simmons, in part: The original question was about developing Activities for a classroom assignment, with the idea that these Activities could be widely distributed. If (big IF) J

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112)
Martin Dengler: Since you don't know if J can run on the XO, J is not a good thing to recommend for developing activities on the XO, right? Wrong. J is worth investigating. J is so cross platform and so powerful that it is a lifetime useful tool for teaching and for thought. J, like

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Martin Dengler
On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 11:36:03AM -0400, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112) wrote: Martin Dengler: Since you don't know if J can run on the XO, J is not a good thing to recommend for developing activities on the XO, right? Wrong. J is worth investigating.

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112)
Martin wrote: The question was what language can be used now. You're answering a different question. Possibly. Depends on whether J can be used now (or soon). I do not know the answer. Let us assume the answer is no. Then the next relevant J question is whether Roger Hui et al

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Martin Dengler
On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 02:57:48PM -0400, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112) wrote: Martin wrote: The question was what language can be used now. You're answering a different question. Possibly. Depends on whether J can be used now (or soon). Only if

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Kevin Cole
If all you have is a hammer, it's time to put another nail in the J coffin. Although the J executable is a free (as in beer) download from Jsoftware (the only place I found a downloadable J), with regard to the source code, the J page at http://www.jsoftware.com/source.htm states: Fees

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-28 Thread Bert Freudenberg
On 28.09.2009, at 17:36, gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112) wrote: J, like APL, sadly does not get the publicity that it deserves. A fate it shares with other nice languages. Like, err, Smalltalk. I would not be surprised if Roger Hui were willing to create an

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-27 Thread gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112)
DancesWithCars wrote in part we have not heard what the project is Let me clarify ... my comments are GENERAL in nature. My preference would be to see the XO ship will several small footprint languages. Each of those languages have their pros cons. From a private e-mail with an IAEP

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-27 Thread gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada (705) 250-0112)
Correction: brain RAM parity error and/or fetch error in my previous post: Frequently I quote: If your only tool is a happy, all of your problems tend to look like nails. Frequently I quote: If your only tool is a hammer, ... happy ~~ hammer perhaps my brain was thinking XO users will be

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-27 Thread Albert Cahalan
Benjamin M. Schwartz writes: There are other options, such as HTML+Javascript, Squeak, and C/C++, but they each suffer from some combination of reduced functionality, problematic cross-platform guarantees, and increased difficulty of programming. Let's not ignore Python, which suffers

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-26 Thread Benjamin M. Schwartz
Caryl Bigenho wrote: So I have a question for you folks. I am in discussion with a college CS prof who would like to teach beginning programming with XOs. He is interested in trying several different languages, but I am interested in pointing him toward the one that would result in the

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-26 Thread DancesWithCars
to become a college counselor at the high school I was teaching at. Haven't done much programming since. Alas!  Tried Scratch this summer... it's a lot of fun. Caryl Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:35:59 -0400 Subject: Re: [IAEP] Which Language? From: danceswithc...@gmail.com To: g...@garycmartin.com

[IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-25 Thread Caryl Bigenho
Hi All, On Thursday, Ben wrote in the IAEP list: My feeling is that the most important thing we can do in this area is to make it easy to write Activities that are intrinsically cross-platform. To borrow a phrase, one way to do this is to choose languages, and interpreters, that are incapable

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-25 Thread Gary C Martin
Hi Caryl, On 26 Sep 2009, at 05:00, Caryl Bigenho wrote: On Thursday, Ben wrote in the IAEP list: My feeling is that the most important thing we can do in this area is to make it easy to write Activities that are intrinsically cross- platform. To borrow a phrase, one way to do this is

Re: [IAEP] Which Language?

2009-09-25 Thread DancesWithCars
For a college level class, starting with Python (as most Activities are probably Python, and Sugar seems to be implemented in it), but will probably drop into C (kernel and other linux plus application stuff). But Scratch, EToys, Emacs, etc provide some other languages under the hood (even if in