Re: Suitability of Lua as a First Programming Language?

[Petite Abeille <petite.abeille@...>]

On Sep 22, 2009, at 10:40 PM, David Given wrote:

> Learning Forth taught me how to program in C.
> Learning Smalltalk taught me how to program in Java.
> Learning Java taught me the importance of pragmatism.
> Learning C taught me the importance of elegance.
> Learning machine code taught me how computers think.
> Learning Intercal taught me how programmers think.
> Learning BASIC taught me what I could do.
> Learning C++ taught me what not to do.
> Learning Javascript taught me that good ideas can still go wrong.
> Learning Lua taught me that getting things wrong can't stop a good  
> idea.
> Learning Haskell taught me how much I still didn't know.
>
> I still haven't learnt Cobol.

Nice :)

In the same vein:

Algol: Assembly language is too low-level.
Pascal: Algol doesn't have enough data types.
Modula: Pascal is too wimpy for systems programming.
Simula: Algol isn't good enough at simulations.
Smalltalk: Not everything in Simula is an object.
Fortran: Assembly language is too low-level.
Cobol: Fortran is scary.
PL/1: Fortran doesn't have enough data types.
Ada: Every existing language is missing something.
Basic: Fortran is scary.
APL: Fortran isn't good enough at manipulating arrays.
J: APL requires its own character set.
C: Assemby language is too low-level.
C++: C is too low-level.
Java: C++ is a kludge. And Microsoft is going to crush us.
C#: Java is controlled by Sun.
Lisp: Turing Machines are an awkward way to describe computation.
Scheme: MacLisp is a kludge.
T: Scheme has no libraries.
Common Lisp: There are too many dialects of Lisp.
Dylan: Scheme has no libraries, and Lisp syntax is scary.
Perl: Shell scripts/awk/sed are not enough like programming languages.
Python: Perl is a kludge.
Ruby: Perl is a kludge, and Lisp syntax is scary.
Prolog: Programming is not enough like logic.

What Languages Fix
http://www.paulgraham.com/fix.html