[OT] HyperCard and the Interactive Web

[Richmond]

On 02/26/2012 10:53 PM, Geoff Canyon wrote:
> It's interesting that you bring up the slaughterhouse analogy -- I've used
> it on many occasions to make the opposite point: I know that cows are
> butchered to make steaks. I've seen videos of it, in fact. I shouldn't have
> to learn how to do it to order at McDonalds.
>
> There's a world of difference between "Kids today" and "computer
> programmer." Forcing the 99.9% of kids who *won't* become computer
> programmers to use a command line because of the .1% who will is like
> forcing every kid to butcher a hog before they are allowed to eat bacon.

Has nobody thought about teaching a computer language as a way of 
teaching kids to reason?

Admittedly the command line is, perhaps, a bit far fetched; and the 
non-programmers can get on with their
Facebooking and whatever regardless [but they should not then say that 
they know "all about computers"].

I studied Latin for quite a few years; I cannot read a book in Latin 
(more's the pity); but what it did teach me was some reasoning,
some useful Indo-European roots, and an appreciation of the very real 
achievements of the past, on which, as is all too often overlooked,
all our current achievements are based.

However, a bit of BASIC, PASCAL, or, for that matter, a script in xTalk 
(aka Livecode) involving a few constants, variables,
loops and what-have-you, is not only valuable for the .1% who will 
become programmers qua programmers; it is also
a valuable mental exercise, and should foster a greater appreciation of 
the work that the .1% do; something that is
taken for granted far too much.

>
> On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 12:14 PM, Richmond<richmondmathewson at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>    Kids today don't need to know
>>> what a command line is because the vast majority of them will never see
>>> one
>>> in their lives.
>>>
>> Really? I wonder about that. Surely every potential computer programmer
>> should
>> have some sort of understanding of command lines. This is rather like
>> saying that
>> that children brought up in cities should have no understanding that
>> animals are slaughtered
>> so that they can have meat on their plates, because they will never see a
>> slaughter-house.
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