Livecode all around the world

[Matt Maier]

On Nov 5, 2015 10:32, "Bob Sneidar" <bobsneidar at iotecdigital.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Nov 5, 2015, at 10:20 , Matt Maier <blueback09 at gmail.com<mailto:
blueback09 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> The human-understandable symbols are arbitrary so the fact that Livecode's
> symbols are derived from English words is missing the point. The symbol
> "put" could be "123XYZ" for all the computer cares.
>
> It's not the computer that is caring, it's the programmer.
>
> The learning curve for
> memorizing the symbols isn't all that much shorter when the symbols are
> conceptually related to symbols you already know either.
>
> That I find extremely difficult to accept. If I could *only* progam in LC
in the German language, I would not be here today.
>
> The hard part
> about programming is learning to clarify your thinking using the tools
> provided. Remembering the symbol associated with the tools is easy,
> especially after you do it for a while and you really start to grok how
> arbitrary the symbols are.
>
> What I "grok" is that Livecode is especially easy for "the rest of us"
developers *PRECICELY* because we don't have to learn a complex syntax. And
by "we" I mean the english speaking among us. Switch to pictograms and I
believe you will have killed Livecode. As far as other languages, if
someone can develop a means to have an interpreter understand the
"german-like" syntax of their code, or any other language -like syntax, all
well and good.
>
> But the real key is making the software understand us. Not the other way
around.

I disagree. All of the responsibility for understanding is on the
programmer. The hard part is teaching the programmer to understand the
software. Once that happens the programmer can easily make the software
understand. The hard part is thinking like software. Giving every single
student a unique set of symbols that minimizes their personal memorization
time is small potatoes compared to teaching them what the thing they
memorized really means.

Additionally, providing unlimited synonyms would probably make it a lot
harder to learn how to think. If each student is literally thinking in
their own language then they not only need the software to translate for
the engine, they also need the software to translate when they talk to
other programmers.

A parser for the IDE wouldn't be enough. We'd also need a plugin for Google
that translates what you're asking for help on and then translates the
results.

Those were the dark ages of computing. No one wants to go back there.
>
> My 2¢
> Bob S
>
> _______________________________________________
> use-livecode mailing list
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your
subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode