> Personal preference and the fact that the ooPIC was meant to appeal
> to a
> less experienced audience, that usually knows VB Basic programming and
> not much more. In the previous compiler the C and Java (nearly the
> same
> as C) were not as well supported as Basic. The V.6 compiler does a
> better job than V.5 with the other syntax so it may pick up in example
> code soon.
>
> One of the interesting things about the V.6 compiler is that it
> doesn't
> care what syntax you use, and you can mix them if you want (and want
> to
> confuse people) and the compiler hums happily along...
Thank you for the reply. That was an interesting collection of
responses I received to my query. I see there are some biases both
ways. ;-)
My background is in computer science and EE, going back to the early
1970's. I started by learning FORTRAN and Basic and then moved on to
other languages. Trying to learn about stacks, recursion, linked-
lists, and tree structures while programming in FORTRAN and Basic was,
well, painful. ;-) Granted, both of these languages have gained a lot
since then and now the differences are mostly syntactic and not
functional.
Also, I started out with the v6.11 OOPic compiler so maybe that is why
I didn't perceive much of a difference. (As I said, I am definitely a
noob playing with microcontrollers unless you count the systems I
designed and built around the M6800 back in the mid '70s.)
I think I mentioned that I am teaching science and robotics at an
elementary and middle school. I introduce the kids to Basic early on
but it is interesting to see how they quickly gravitate to the OOPic
and, surprisingly, to the Java flavor. The consensus with the kids
seems to be that, with all the blocks being explicitly delineated, it
appears less ambiguous even if it is more wordy.
But I am glad to hear that there is no functional difference so I can
let the kids see how the different grammars can do the same thing.
BTW, thank you for the good job on your book. We are using it as the
bible here in the classroom.
(FWIW, for the OOPic we are using MarkIII 'bots and the OricomTech
OOBOT-40-3 board in custom 'bots. Some of the kids are building a 'bot
powered by the Propeller. Somehow I manage to stay the requisite 20
minutes ahead of the kids but it can be a challenge.)
Brian Lloyd
Granite Bay Montessori School 9330 Sierra College Bl
brian AT gbmontessori DOT com Roseville, CA 95661
+1.916.367.2131 (voice) +1.791.912.8170 (fax)
PGP key ID: 12095C52A32A1B6C
PGP key fingerprint: 3B1D BA11 4913 3254 B6E0 CC09 1209 5C52 A32A 1B6C
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