On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, TimC
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>One thinks Mark needs a lesson on what a troll is. Perhaps he could
>look at the newsfroup line for a hint?
and the rasserver IP is the clincher, of course. Broken down pervert joat
wants now to show that he is not just a skanky old homo, but that he knows
some things about computers, too. The poor, pathetic rasserver spammer...
Those on the cobol group can check 10-20-03 for JOAT, rottfather etc. on
the photo and woodworking groups and see what a filthy pervert is like.
Naturally enough, you'd prefer not to - but you might learn to check the
newsgroups line to avoid being a dupe of this deviant.
Since he's gay, though, Kodak will try to recruit him.
"Steven M. Scharf" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> APL is probably the best, ...
Please, please tell me you are joking! It is a tossup whether APL or RPG
are best qualified for the title Worst Programming Language Created By
Man. Experienced APL programmers often rewrite their own programs,
written only weeks ago, rather than try to modify them. APL was designed
by Kenneth E. Iverson, who clearly believed brevity is the *only* criteria
for a programming language. "Readable APL" is an oxymoron.
--
Judson McClendon [email protected] (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
"English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
Back in the 80's I was contracted by a major computer manufacturer to
teach a course on hardware, assembly language and system software
concepts to a group of their clients. The 25 or so students ranged from
a couple of clerks, obviously sent by a clueless management, to one very
intelligent, well educated guy with 5 years FORTRAN programming
experience with Du Pont. Most were common COBOL programmers,
in no way outstanding. The poor clerks were lost from the beginning, of
course. The COBOL programmers, without exception, grasped all the
necessary concepts with little difficulty. It is intuitively easy, for
example, to make the leap from the layout of a record in WS to memory
allocation, or from subscripts to pointers. But, except for the clerks, the
most lost person in the class was the most intelligent and educated of the
bunch, the guy with 5 years programming exclusively in FORTRAN. I
spent more time with him than any of the others, but he simply never
caught on. This guy was very bright, no dummy. But his mental model of
how a computer works was so distorted by the FORTRAN model that he
was unable to bridge the gap during the two weeks of the class. Since in
FORTRAN variable 'appear magically', he has no concept of memory
allocation. Because in FORTRAN you can write a complex expression
and it is automatically calculated, he had no concept of how expressions
must be decomposed and executed piece by piece, as it must be. This is
only two examples, but the FORTRAN model is very, very different from
what is actually going on inside, at the hardware/assembly level. Draw
your own conclusions, but IMHO any process that makes it *harder* to
understand what is really going on in there is not good.
--
Judson McClendon [email protected] (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Judson McClendon wrote:
> Draw
> your own conclusions, but IMHO any process that makes it *harder* to
> understand what is really going on in there is not good.
Fascinating point of view - one that I would argue just the other way
around: Fortran's mental model of computation is just that -
computation. All irrelevant complications and minutae are hidden by the
"processor", i.e., compiler and run-time library.
We Fortraners can't help it that the rest of IT makes things so
complicated ...
--
Toon Moene - mailto:[email protected] - phoneto: +31 346 214290
Saturnushof 14, 3738 XG Maartensdijk, The Netherlands
Maintainer, GNU Fortran 77: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/g77_news.html
GNU Fortran 95: http://gcc.gnu.org/fortran/ (under construction)
"Joe Zitzelberger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:joe_zitzelberger-> Cobol, Fortran, Basic and C/C++ are terrible
fits......
Thank God....Someone else besides me has heard of Basic........
Robert Corbett wrote:
> [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
>>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
>>languages?
>
>
> For an English teacher? A text processing language. Icon or SNOBOL.
> Maybe LISP.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Bob Corbett
You forgot basic photography.........
Or did I wander into some sort of warp that took me out of
rec.photo.equipment.35mm ?????
Bob,
An old guy that was taught by teachers that could read and comprhend
what they read.....
"Robert Corbett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> > Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> > languages?
>
> For an English teacher? A text processing language. Icon or SNOBOL.
> Maybe LISP.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Bob Corbett
shhhh
[email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
There is far more work for COBOL programmers than there is for
Fortran. Go to Monster.com and check out the number of jobs. COBOL is
the language for business applications, it's used world wide. Fotran
will not get you a job unless your very mathematically oriented and
like that sort of coding. For just learning the rudiments of
programming I'd recommend either Visual Basic or plain old Basic.
That's how I started 20+ years ago. C, C++, Java involve concepts that
can be very challenging for a beginner to learn. Basic would still be
my choice, then move on to another language. Another good one is AWK
which is unix type utility. Skip the pattern matching and just learn
the basic language, you'll be able to leverage that learn either C,
C++ or Java. You can download a free windows version of Awk from the
net.
[email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
They are both dead as a doorknob and neither of them are worth learning.
"Anonymous Sender" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, TimC
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >
> >One thinks Mark needs a lesson on what a troll is. Perhaps he could
> >look at the newsfroup line for a hint?
>
> and the rasserver IP is the clincher, of course. Broken down pervert joat
> wants now to show that he is not just a skanky old homo, but that he knows
> some things about computers, too. The poor, pathetic rasserver spammer...
>
> Those on the cobol group can check 10-20-03 for JOAT, rottfather etc. on
> the photo and woodworking groups and see what a filthy pervert is like.
> Naturally enough, you'd prefer not to - but you might learn to check the
> newsgroups line to avoid being a dupe of this deviant.
>
> Since he's gay, though, Kodak will try to recruit him.
>
not here
"Scott" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:LCelb.605615$cF.272568@rwcrnsc53...
> Isn't this a wee bit off topic?
>
>
> "English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> > Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> > languages?
> >
> > Thanks!
>
>
shhh
"Donald A. Morrison" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In message <fXel/[email protected]>
> [email protected] (Richard Steiner) wrote:
>
> > Here in comp.lang.cobol, "Frank ess" <[email protected]> spake unto us,
saying:
> >
> > >shhhhh
> >
> > What is the point of this?
> >
> > You're roughly doubling the number of messages in this thread.
> >
>
> The point is that the original poster is a troll, just look at the groups
> posted to for goodness sake. Why on earth would a legitimate poster
> ask Fortran or Cobol related questions in groups like
> rec.photo.equipment.35mm and rec.woodworking?
One could safely assume that someone in the COBOL industry is
a) Old enough to have a 35mm camera....
b) And *maybe* old enough to have been forced to chop his own timber to make
the furniture he sits on.
> Please don't feed the trolls or if you feel bound to discuss the question
at
> least make sure that you don't crosspost to groups where people really
aren't
> interested.
Pot.Kettle.Black.
> Please everyone, can we just let these threads die?
Nothing more from me per the request of Donald.
JCE
"Steven M. Scharf" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> >Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> >languages?
>
> APL is probably the best, Cobol and Fortran are obsolete.
>
> You'll need to get an APL keyboard, but these are readily available
> at "http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pckeyboards/adcolkey.html"
> This is better than putting little stickers on your keys.
>
> You can get a free version of APL at:
> "ftp://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/languages/apl/apl-plus/freeapl.zip"
>
> ALGOL might also be a good choice for you, but there are only
> MS-DOS versions, not Windows versions, see:
> "http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/binaries/algol60.zip"
>
>
shhhh
English Teacher wrote:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
A first language is not taught to learn the language. It is taught as a tool
to help learn programming concepts. As such, the first language should, at a
minimum, not get in the way of learning these concepts.
Let me give you an example: Plane Geometry. Geometry is taught in every
high-school in the land, but the demand for surveyors is extremely limited.
Nobody teaches Geometry for its own sake. Geometry is a TOOL to teach
logical thinking and deduction.
Now, to answer your question: Between the two, Fortran is superior to COBOL
for the task of learning basic programming skills (because it's easier). You
may never use Fortan in the real world, but how often do you have to
construct the bisector of an angle?
Isn't this a wee bit off topic?
"English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
Removing the "irrelevant" groups makes sense. However, some of us think
that the question was at least semi-reasonable and deserved semi-reasonable
responses.
Repeatedly saying "Shhh" adds nothing to the discussion and does NOT even
give others a clue as to why you do not want them to post replies.
--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
"Donald A. Morrison" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In message <fXel/[email protected]>
> [email protected] (Richard Steiner) wrote:
>
> > Here in comp.lang.cobol, "Frank ess" <[email protected]> spake unto us,
saying:
> >
> > >shhhhh
> >
> > What is the point of this?
> >
> > You're roughly doubling the number of messages in this thread.
> >
>
> The point is that the original poster is a troll, just look at the groups
> posted to for goodness sake. Why on earth would a legitimate poster
> ask Fortran or Cobol related questions in groups like
> rec.photo.equipment.35mm and rec.woodworking?
>
> Please don't feed the trolls or if you feel bound to discuss the question
at
> least make sure that you don't crosspost to groups where people really
aren't
> interested.
>
> Please everyone, can we just let these threads die?
>
> Regards,
>
> DAM.
>
>
> --
> Donald A Morrison
"William Graham" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:3Mhlb.839333$Ho3.246277@sccrnsc03...
>
> "Joe Zitzelberger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:joe_zitzelberger-> Cobol, Fortran, Basic and C/C++ are terrible
> fits......
>
> Thank God....Someone else besides me has heard of Basic........
>
>
shhhh
In message <fXel/[email protected]>
[email protected] (Richard Steiner) wrote:
> Here in comp.lang.cobol, "Frank ess" <[email protected]> spake unto us, saying:
>
> >shhhhh
>
> What is the point of this?
>
> You're roughly doubling the number of messages in this thread.
>
The point is that the original poster is a troll, just look at the groups
posted to for goodness sake. Why on earth would a legitimate poster
ask Fortran or Cobol related questions in groups like
rec.photo.equipment.35mm and rec.woodworking?
Please don't feed the trolls or if you feel bound to discuss the question at
least make sure that you don't crosspost to groups where people really aren't
interested.
Please everyone, can we just let these threads die?
Regards,
DAM.
--
Donald A Morrison
My thoughts are : What will you be doing with this knowledge
afterwards? COBOL and FORTRAN are both linear programming languages.
Java is object-oriented. They really differ from each other in the
way one has to think.
My thoughts are to simply learn using macros in Excel--which is
nothing more than Visual Basic. It's an easy language to learn and
you can get 'ideas' on how to do things by recording macros and within
many Excel books and even the manual you get with it.
[email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
Hi
For what it's worth - neither Fortran nor COBOL should be regarded as a
good first computer language to learn. That is, unless you have a need
to learn Fortran or COBOL.
The first language to learn depends on your answer to this question: why
do you want to learn a programming language ? For a lot of answers a
good first language is Java, for others it's LISP/Scheme, for many it's C,
Mark
English Teacher wrote:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
Hi English Teacher.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt about your question "Are they still
used professionally? Or are they only learning languages?"
I can't answer for Fortran, but COBOL, according to various estimates, makes
up 60% - 70% - 80% of the worlds computer code. It's not a "leaning
language" - it was specifically designed to process business rules and
business logic. True, it's been around for over 40 years but has not stood
still. It is still here after many "replacements" have come forward and
since fallen by the wayside.
Check out www.microfocus.com for an idea of where it's at with COBOL at the
moment.
Paul
"English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
On 21-Oct-2003, [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
I've never considered Cobol a learning language, and wouldn't think it is well
suited for that task. In fact it's biggest threat is that it isn't taught in
schools enough to meet the professional demands. It's a working language that
until recently was easily the most widely programmed professional language.
It's used for business applications.
In article <[email protected]>,
JerryMouse <[email protected]> wrote:
>Richard Steiner wrote:
>> Here in comp.lang.cobol, "Frank ess" <[email protected]> spake unto us,
>> saying:
>>
>>> shhhhh
>>
>> What is the point of this?
>>
>> You're roughly doubling the number of messages in this thread.
>
>Do you think the United States will ever adopt the metric system?
Metric doubling can involve more frequent beatings.
DD
"Steven M. Scharf" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ALGOL might also be a good choice for you, but there are only
> MS-DOS versions, not Windows versions ...
There are other systems in the world besides MS-DOS and Windows.
And I would argue that anyone running on a Unisys MCP/VM system might
disagree with you; ALGOL is very much alive and well in that environment,
which is superimposed on W2K ... You can have all sorts of fun with a
laptop with the appropriate attachments and software ...
-Chuck Stevens
On 22-Oct-2003, "Judson McClendon" <[email protected]> wrote:
> But, except for the clerks, the
> most lost person in the class was the most intelligent and educated of the
> bunch, the guy with 5 years programming exclusively in FORTRAN. I
> spent more time with him than any of the others, but he simply never
> caught on. This guy was very bright, no dummy. But his mental model of
> how a computer works was so distorted by the FORTRAN model that he
> was unable to bridge the gap during the two weeks of the class. Since in
> FORTRAN variable 'appear magically', he has no concept of memory
> allocation. Because in FORTRAN you can write a complex expression
> and it is automatically calculated, he had no concept of how expressions
> must be decomposed and executed piece by piece, as it must be.
This looks similar to difficulties people like me have had in adjusting to OO
thinking. Which may influence your choice of "learning language"
On 28-Oct-2003, [email protected] (Leicaddict) wrote:
> They are both dead as a doorknob and neither of them are worth learning.
Seeing that programming languages have never been alive in the first place, I am
assuming that you mean that they are as useful as doorknobs, and that you had
enough trouble learning to use doorknobs that you don't want anybody else to
have to go through that trouble.
I wonder which languages will be in jobs that are the easiest to outsource
overseas.
I suspect jobs that are more closely related to a well-defined technical task
will be easier to export.
But jobs that are closely related to the way a company does its business -
requiring meetings with a bunch of customers to design the program, will be the
hardest to move off-shore.
The most cost-effective to move are those that take lots of complex coding, but
relatively simple analysis.
[email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
For an English teacher? A text processing language. Icon or SNOBOL.
Maybe LISP.
Sincerely,
Bob Corbett
Richard Steiner wrote:
> Here in comp.lang.cobol, "Frank ess" <[email protected]> spake unto us,
> saying:
>
>> shhhhh
>
> What is the point of this?
>
> You're roughly doubling the number of messages in this thread.
Do you think the United States will ever adopt the metric system?
"Ron Hunter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Howard Brazee wrote:
>
> > On 21-Oct-2003, [email protected] (English Teacher)
wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> >>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> >>languages?
> >
> >
> > I've never considered Cobol a learning language, and wouldn't think it
is well
> > suited for that task. In fact it's biggest threat is that it isn't
taught in
> > schools enough to meet the professional demands. It's a working
language that
> > until recently was easily the most widely programmed professional
language.
> > It's used for business applications.
> I would say that at this time, the best language to learn first would be
> C++. It is the popular language, very flexible, fast, structured, and
> being able to write it is a highly saleable skill. That said, I
> wouldn't use it on a bet.. But that's just me.
>
shhhhh
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (English Teacher) wrote:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> languages?
>
> Thanks!
They both suck as first languages, the are learning languages only in
the "Oh, #$%^, what happened" school of bad experiences. Both are still
used very widely throughout the world.
Your goal should be to learn to program, not learn a language. As such,
there are several that are well designed with that goal in mind.
Pascal or Java are great fits for this problem. Pascal is a bit better
at teaching the purist theory, Java is a bit better at teaching the
practical with its rich support library. Either (or both) would be a
fine first language.
Cobol, Fortran, Basic and C/C++ are terrible fits. Avoid them until you
have enough experience at programming to understand their shortcuts and
shortcomings.
I also strongly recommend learning at least one assembler. You don't
have to become a guru, or even use it, but it will greatly improve your
high level programming to understand what is going on under the covers.
"Bob Sull" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Robert Corbett wrote:
>
> > [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> >
> >>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> >>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> >>languages?
> >
> >
> > For an English teacher? A text processing language. Icon or SNOBOL.
> > Maybe LISP.
> >
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Bob Corbett
>
> You forgot basic photography.........
>
> Or did I wander into some sort of warp that took me out of
> rec.photo.equipment.35mm ?????
No you wandered into the troll zone, I think there is a power struggle going
on here to derail a newsgroup into oblivion.
>
> Bob,
>
> An old guy that was taught by teachers that could read and comprhend
> what they read.....
>
"English Teacher" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
>languages?
APL is probably the best, Cobol and Fortran are obsolete.
You'll need to get an APL keyboard, but these are readily available
at "http://shop.store.yahoo.com/pckeyboards/adcolkey.html"
This is better than putting little stickers on your keys.
You can get a free version of APL at:
"ftp://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/languages/apl/apl-plus/freeapl.zip"
ALGOL might also be a good choice for you, but there are only
MS-DOS versions, not Windows versions, see:
"http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/binaries/algol60.zip"
"Mark Westwood [EPCC]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi
>
> For what it's worth - neither Fortran nor COBOL should be regarded as a
> good first computer language to learn. That is, unless you have a need
> to learn Fortran or COBOL.
>
> The first language to learn depends on your answer to this question: why
> do you want to learn a programming language ? For a lot of answers a
> good first language is Java, for others it's LISP/Scheme, for many it's C,
>
> Mark
>
> English Teacher wrote:
> > Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> > Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> > languages?
> >
> > Thanks!
>
Gee.....Whatever happened to BASIC? - Apparently, it's so old and obsolete,
nobody even remembers it anymore....Sure makes me feel old........
Mark Westwood [EPCC] (aka Bruce) was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> Hi
>
> For what it's worth - neither Fortran nor COBOL should be regarded as a
> good first computer language to learn. That is, unless you have a need
> to learn Fortran or COBOL.
Hell no. Fortran 66 is the best language to learn. I would follow
through on HC16 assembly language next.
> The first language to learn depends on your answer to this question: why
> do you want to learn a programming language ? For a lot of answers a
> good first language is Java, for others it's LISP/Scheme, for many it's C,
>
> Mark
>
> English Teacher wrote:
>> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
>> Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
>> languages?
One thinks Mark needs a lesson on what a troll is. Perhaps he could
look at the newsfroup line for a hint?
--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"*Real* real programmers use `zcat > a.out' 'cause you can type faster"
"William Graham" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:rIhlb.835813$YN5.926202@sccrnsc01...
>
> "Mark Westwood [EPCC]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hi
> >
> > For what it's worth - neither Fortran nor COBOL should be regarded as a
> > good first computer language to learn. That is, unless you have a need
> > to learn Fortran or COBOL.
> >
> > The first language to learn depends on your answer to this question: why
> > do you want to learn a programming language ? For a lot of answers a
> > good first language is Java, for others it's LISP/Scheme, for many it's
C,
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > English Teacher wrote:
> > > Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
> > > Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
> > > languages?
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> >
> Gee.....Whatever happened to BASIC? - Apparently, it's so old and
obsolete,
> nobody even remembers it anymore....Sure makes me feel old........
>
>
shhh
[email protected] (English Teacher) writes:
> Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
I'm not that much of a camera buff. I should probably get something
better than my oldish 35mm digital, but it meets my current needs.
My woodworking was good enough to build a workbench in the garage,
but that's only because nobody else cares what the garage looks like.
Don't feed the trolls. It just makes them more ornery.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: my first.last at org.domain | experience comes from bad judgment.
org: nasa, domain: gov | -- Mark Twain
Howard Brazee wrote:
> On 21-Oct-2003, [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote:
>
>
>>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
>>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
>>languages?
>
>
> I've never considered Cobol a learning language, and wouldn't think it is well
> suited for that task. In fact it's biggest threat is that it isn't taught in
> schools enough to meet the professional demands. It's a working language that
> until recently was easily the most widely programmed professional language.
> It's used for business applications.
I would say that at this time, the best language to learn first would be
C++. It is the popular language, very flexible, fast, structured, and
being able to write it is a highly saleable skill. That said, I
wouldn't use it on a bet.. But that's just me.
William Graham wrote:
> Gee.....Whatever happened to BASIC? - Apparently, it's so old and obsolete,
> nobody even remembers it anymore....Sure makes me feel old........
The first "language" I learned was LOGO, followed by IBM BASIC, followed
by Commodore BASIC. :) I still think it's a very good teaching
language, as you can see a lot of programming constructs quite easily.
(I agree with the others who have said that it's not necessarily the
language, but the concept of programming, that is important to learn first.)
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Leicaddict wrote:
> [email protected] (English Teacher) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>Which is a better first computer language to learn? Cobol or Fortran?
>>Are they still used professionally? Or are they only learning
>>languages?
>>
>>Thanks!
>
>
> They are both dead as a doorknob and neither of them are worth learning.
Some would disagree with that analysis...
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