Re: Suitability of Lua as a First Programming Language?

["M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>]

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 1:55 PM, Coda Highland <chighland@gmail.com> wrote:
> Pascal was designed as a language for teaching structured programming,
> but IT ended up being used for professional software engineering.
>
> I don't know if you can necessarily say it's SUITABLE for the task ;)
> but it definitely saw a lot of use.
>
> /s/ Adam

C was designed for writing systems programs - operating systems and
compilers. It took about ten years for the compilers to get good
enough for it to be competitive with FORTRAN for number crunching.

>
> On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 1:49 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb@znmeb.net> wrote:
>> This "debate" has been going on since there *were* programming
>> languages. Logo, BASIC and now Scratch were specifically designed to
>> get youngsters into programming. *None* of the "kids' programming
>> languages" was *ever* suitable for professional software engineering.
>> Python, Lua, Visual Basic and most other languages are.
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 1:43 PM, Pierre Chapuis <catwell@archlinux.us> wrote:
>>> I think you cannot teach CS correctly with just one language.
>>> If I had to teach it I would choose Python as a first language
>>> though. The reason is that Python is more structured than Lua,
>>> and also more close to pseudocode. It is a perfect way to teach
>>> algorithms, and you can get up to speed and do real things
>>> quickly with it.
>>>
>>> Then I would teach C, because it is still the best way to
>>> learn data structures. I do not think can understand CS if you
>>> do not understand memory management, pointers... Also, Unix.
>>>
>>> Then I would teach LISP, the Maxwell Equations of Software.
>>> C makes you understand what you do from the point of view of
>>> the computer, LISP makes you understand what you do in
>>> theory and understand the power of abstraction.
>>>
>>> Finally, I may teach something like Haskell. Programmers should
>>> understand typing, the equivalent of homogeneity in math.
>>>
>>> In my opinion Lua is not best learned in a class. It is best
>>> learned by reading the manual. Especially in a printed version.
>>> When you have it into your hands you think "Is that really all
>>> there is to it?" Yes, it is all there is to it. Lua is a jewel,
>>> a wonder of software design and you choose to use it when you
>>> realize that. But you cannot realize it if if you have not used
>>> other languages first.
>>>
>>> That being said there is something I think Lua is the perfect
>>> language to teach: Object Orientation. Because to use OO in Lua
>>> you implement it, and you understand it is not something so
>>> complicated. You also understand objects can be seen in two
>>> ways: structures with related methods (the x:foo() style) and
>>> closures (the x.foo() style).
>>>
>>> --
>>> Pierre Chapuis
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism Publishers
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>>
>> How the Hell can the lion sleep with all those people singing "A weem
>> oh way!" at the top of their lungs?
>>
>



-- 
Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism Publishers
Workbench: http://znmeb.github.com/Computational-Journalism-Publishers-Workbench/

How the Hell can the lion sleep with all those people singing "A weem
oh way!" at the top of their lungs?