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[REBOL] Re: Teaching Rebol => was:{Re: Re: Parsing comment}

From: tim:johnsons-web at: 25-Sep-2002 19:41

Hello All: * Jason Cunliffe <[jason--cunliffe--verizon--net]> [020925 18:43]:
> > > What do think about REBOL being used as 'first' > > > language and/or for kids? > > > Tim Johnson would be a better person to ask I think, as he's had some > > experience of teaching REBOL to kids. I'd think it would have quite
My ears were burning .... now I know why! Well.... Despite the comments about documentation I think that rebol's help function is very accomodating for a new programming student. (and BTW I am also teaching python in a similar fashion) just try typing "help split" at the python prompt and see what you get. But seriously, rebol is a very good first programming language. The absense of systems calls in rebol/core is a good thing. I don't have to have the student's parents sign one of those "If you broke it with your program it ain't our fault" kind of contract/disclaimers, as we are doing with python, perl and C.
> > The downside would be the lack of documentation, (especially for > > View), plus the lack of experienced REBOL programmers to teach the > > language. Not a good look when the teacher doesn't know the answer > > to a question and hasn't the resources to find it. > > Amen. > Python is kicking Rebol's ass there.
There is a huge amount of docs on python out there. Partly a function of it being an "older" language than rebol, right? Put rebol documentation has come a *llloooonnnngggg* way since the old days. But .... check this out: Python 2.1.1 (#1, Aug 13 2001, 19:37:40) [GCC 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-96)] on linux2 Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> help split
File "<stdin>", line 1 help split ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> type? 2
File "<stdin>", line 1 type? 2 ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REBOL/Core 2.5.0.4.2 Copyright 1997-2001 REBOL Technologies REBOL is a Trademark of REBOL Technologies All rights reserved.
>> help parse
USAGE: PARSE input rules /all /case DESCRIPTION: Parses a series according to rules. PARSE is a native value. ARGUMENTS: input -- Input series to parse (Type: series) rules -- Rules to parse by (Type: block string none) REFINEMENTS: /all -- Parses all chars including spaces. /case -- Uses case-sensitive comparison.
>> type? 2
== integer!
>>
So who's butt is getting kicked here? :-) ((we're talking about students starting out here...) (but I do production with rebol also)) -- Tim Johnson <[tim--johnsons-web--com]> http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com http://www.johnsons-web.com