1. Re: QBasic/BASIC programmers learning Euphoria
At 07:28 PM 5/27/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Robert,
>
>I'm speaking from a Euphoria newkie's perspective. First of all, QBasic
>and a little of BASICA was the only language I even touched. One weekend I
>downloaded a shareware tutorial on BASIC. That weekend, Saturday May 2, I
>thought I would change my programming life. And I did... but not the way I
>expected.
>
>Anyway, I'm rambling with the story of how I met Euphoria. That's
>irrelevant here. My point is, the least you mention GOTOs and those bad
>habits, the better. I've tried to learn Euphoria from a BASIC point of
>view, and that lasted for 10 minutes. There is no good translator. To use
>a sociological analogy, the culture is different, really.
>
>For your article, you can say that Euphoria doesn't use jumps (aka goto s)
>and emphasize the different culture. But don't try to say "Instead of
>using this function, use that function. That function is more powerful and
>so much better." That didn't work for me. BASIC programmers, in my
>opinion, have to start from scratch with sequences, atoms, etc.
>
>--Alan
>
Alan,
I found out that the easiest way to learn Euphoria, Java, Smalltalk and the
like, is to FIRST learn at least the basics of C++. A fair working
knowledge of C++ is way over half-way toward learnimg these languages as
they are similarly based and it only takes a few hours to sit down and
learn the differences. Once you know C++, you've got it made. I got into
C++ from assembly language. It was like a way of using fewer lines of code
to do more.....mind you, no language can match optimized machine code
(assembler/linker output) for speed and to some extent, program size. C++
adds ease of programming and security to it. The step from C++ to Euphoria
is like moving from a manual "stick-shift" car to one with an automatic
trasmission and tons of neat accessories.
Norm Miller
norm.miller at mailexcite.com or via weatherlab at wmbb.com
