Brian Lloyd wrote:
> On Feb 18, 2008, at 11:31 AM, ooPIC Tech Support wrote:
>
>
>> 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.
>
>
I rather like C and Java myself because code blocks are obviously
delineated. BASIC tends to hide much of what is being done, which IMO
muddies the waters a bit when reading it. I can play in anyone's
sandbox of course - But C/Java is less wordy and more explicit. (IMO)
> 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.
>
>
Thanks. I'm negotiating the rights to the PDF of the book since MH has
declined to do another printing and there are lots of classroom folks
asking to get copies.
> (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.)
>
>
I do understand what you mean. The most challenging classes that I've
taught were to early teens. Its nice to know that they weren't special,
just normal, sharp, kids...
DLC
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
--
------------------------------------------------------
Dennis Clark ooPIC Tech Support
www.oopic.com
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