English Like?

[prothero at earthlearningsolutions.org]

Ok,ok, I hear y'all about the approachability of the htalk language. I do know that when we get familiar with an intellectual construct, we tend to give validity to information or attitudes that agree with that construct. Confirmation bias seemed to be a huge factor in news "facts" acceptance in the recent US election, as well.

As to the subject at hand, experienced programmers are going to favor constructs they are already familiar with. It will not be possible to settle the question of whether using x=3 or put 3 into x is more logical using this audience. In addition, the question is ill-posed. One question is whether programmers experienced in other high level languages would find livecode an attractive option for their work. Or conversely, would people new to coding find htalk easy and intuitive? These are two different questions and a rigorous answer will most likely not come from knowledgeable livecode programmers. No insult is intended, as I accept that I am guilty of the same bias.

In my humble opinion, the proof is in the pudding. What can I build with this application and how easy will it be to build what I want? I may prefer other syntaxes, but what the heck? As long as I can find what I need to make what I want, and have this fantastic array of users who help me out, I'm a very happy camper. So, for a bottom line, I really don't give a hoot about the "put 3 into x" syntax as long as I can build what I want. My initial posting was to comment that a LOT of the syntax for important operations is neither English-like, nor intuitive.

The reason I moved to Livecode was its capabilities, multiple platform deployment, but mostly the potential of the development team and the dynamic way they are improving the product and keeping up as technology continues to evolve. The refactoring of a very mature code base was a very positive development, in my view. The responsiveness and engagement of the development team is another huge positive for me.

One of the sayings among academic departments is that "the battles are so fierce because the stakes are so small". The discussion is fun and interesting, but ....... maybe less important.

Off to breakfast on a foggy Santa Barbara morning.

Best,
Bill P

William Prothero
http://es.earthednet.org

> On May 24, 2017, at 7:13 AM, Mike Kerner via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> That is certainly true.  The approachability of the language is the hook
> that got me hooked, even though HC was my...8th?  9th?  15th? language.
> For beginners, we should be asking what else we can do to make their life
> easier.  Community is free and it gets you in, but you can't build even the
> simplest ios app without paying apple and then fighting through all of the
> other things you have to do to get the app built and on your device just so
> you can play with it.  That would be a nifty service to provide for
> learning.  The n00b would have to upload their stack, and the ID of the one
> device they want to mess with it on.  Hmm......
> 
> On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 9:45 AM, dunbarx via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
>> There is a far more important issue here. New learners are far more likely
>> to
>> be coaxed into continuing to spend the time and effort, and to put away
>> their fears, if they see and use "put x into y". It is why we have stacks
>> and cards, and in the olden days, rolodexes. The original HC team did all
>> that on purpose.
>> 
>> Remember "for the rest of us"?
>> 
>> Experienced users are being academic and pedantic to raise this issue as if
>> it were something important. We need new users, not old ones.
>> 
>> No offense, please.
>> 
>> Craig Newman
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://runtime-revolution.2783
>> 05.n4.nabble.com/English-Like-tp4714951p4715143.html
>> Sent from the Revolution - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
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