Is RR too easy? RevCode

[Randall Lee Reetz]

And it is (dificult)... To program complex functional logic... What shouldnt be hard is wielding the language itself.  It is hard to build a building.. That is why architects use pencil and paper to prototype or design first.  I am sick to death of code writing machismo.  What matters is the elegance of the functionality of the finished product.  What matters is the democratization of computing that happens when the technology itself is designed to be more human allowing more and more people to participate.  Xtalk languages are the most human like languages that computers can understand.  How could that be a problem?

randall

-----Original Message-----
From: "David Brooks" <dbrooks at unlserve.unl.edu>
To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: 5/29/2008 10:46 AM
Subject: Is RR too easy? RevCode


> marty wrote:
>> Is it true that most programmers say that hypercard isn't   
>> programming?  Do they say that about RR?  I'm running into that  
>> issue  a little bit.
>> Some of my students (8th grade and up) think that RR is not a  
>> "real"  programming language.  Why?  It's too easy!  They have the  
>> notion --  shared by a good portion of the general public -- that  
>> programming is  incredibly difficult to do, hard to learn, and  
>> mastered only by  geeks.  Thus, since making things (even  
>> executables) using RR is so  easy, it must not be programming.   
>> This viewpoint is especially  expressed by students who have  
>> dabbled in other languages, like java.
>
> Yeah, I see that a lot.  Rev is in a very difficult position with  
> regard to its positioning:  any programming language will be too  
> hard for most folks to find attractive, yet Transcript is too easy  
> for some to take it seriously.

I know better than to post this.  Really, I do.

I left the last RunRev conference excited about the possibility of  
teaching RunRev. The new plug-in possibilities make this just too  
attractive to pass up. Since I don't normally teach this, it meant  
adding to my load -- something tenured faculty just don't do unless  
they are "on a mission."

I needed to describe the course, and I've chosen to use a term  
introduced to me at Las Vegas by Paul Looney -- RevCode. So, I'm  
teaching RevCode.  Now, some of you might think this is Revolution,  
and others transcript, and still others hypertalk-on-steroids. I'm  
calling it RevCode.

In order for the "case" to be made, well, I'd just have to take more  
from Paul's justification than a good academic should. In our world of  
sound bytes where "script" is bad and "code" is good, why not RevCode?

Best,

Dave B.

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