🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct16.173051.6062@Princeton.EDU> bdavis@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (William Davis) writes:
>Hi,
>
>My 10-year old and a friend want to write a computer game dealing with
>baseball, for a special school project.  They are bright and patient,
>but have no computer experience (Dad does, and is willing to tutor).
>Any ideas on what language or tools they (I) might investigate using?
>We have a Mac and the school has Apple IIe's, so it would be ideal if
>the language/tools were available on both platforms.

The only language I know that runs on both machines is Pascal.  UCSD
Pascal is a very good implementation on the Apple, THINK Pascal is a
superlative implementation on the Mac.  For the most part the
languages are compatible, but you will run into some differences in
string manipulation.  Your choices are to either (1) treat strings as
arrays of characters, which is workable but awkward, and is fully
machine-independent, or (2) learn both sets of string operations and
be prepared to convert between them as necessary.

However, the kids will get a lot further and have a lot more fun using
HyperCard.  They will have to know a lot to write even a simple
program in Pascal, and the gap between the written program and the
results of running it are quite large.  They can do more with less in
HyperCard, the effect of doing something easy can usually be seen
immediately, and they get a nice interface for free.  The problem, of
course, is that HyperCard doesn't run on an Apple IIe, so you have to
make some arrangements with the school to show them the program on
your Mac.

I notice that a couple of people have suggested BASIC.  One person
even went so far as to say that anyone who did not consider BASIC a
reasonable choice would "loose" his respect.  As for me, I don't mind
if I lose his respect -- heck, it's mutual.  BASIC is a primitive
language that will teach your kids bad habits; I certainly wouldn't
pay money to inflict it on them.  Even disregarding the quality of the
language itself, Apple BASIC is the worst *implementation* of any
programming language I have ever seen, anywhere; it certainly won't be
compatible with a version you might buy for the Mac.  (I've used it,
and other BASICs; this isn't secondhand opinion, but direct experience.)

[BASIC apologists -- please don't waste bandwidth by starting a
religious war here.  If you want to flame, please e-mail me directly.
Or you can eliminate the middleman and post your flames directly to
/dev/null.]

Hope this helps.

  --dave

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