From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107f24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid107f24,public X-Google-Thread: f4fd2,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gidf4fd2,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 103d24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid103d24,public X-Google-Thread: 10259a,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid10259a,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-19 07:25:04 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!logbridge.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!csulb.edu!/news!GT-News!not-for-mail From: Lex Spoon Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.basic,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.perl Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? Date: 19 May 2001 10:24:33 -0400 Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA, USA Message-ID: References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9d6b6e$1bt$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: unknown@r50h168.res.gatech.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: news-int.gatech.edu 990282295 27414 128.61.50.168 (19 May 2001 14:24:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.gatech.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 May 2001 14:24:55 GMT User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7649 comp.lang.lisp:10336 comp.lang.smalltalk:9941 comp.lang.functional:5739 comp.lang.scheme:3923 comp.lang.perl:2826 Date: 2001-05-19T14:24:55+00:00 List-Id: > > > > Amy Bruckman's Moose Crossing is a mud intended as a place for kids to > > learn about programming: > > > > http://www.cc.gatech.edu/elc/moose-crossing/ > > > > If you think muds for programming is interesting, you should > > definitely look into Moose Crossing. > > > > > > Lex Spoon > > > > What is Moose as a language like, though? Is it a well-designed language > (I only saw something about it being OO, which is obviously essential for > a MUD programming language, anyway)? LPC is quite an interesting language, > as it offers a lower-level language, a C-like language without pointers > and efficient closures, so besides being extremely impure, it at least > has first-class functions :-) > > Been a while since I had a look at LPC, so I hope I didn't get anything > wrong. > I don't know a lot about it -- I just *hear* a lot about it, because Amy Bruckman is a professor at my university and her PhD project gets a lot of discussion. I'll share what I've picked up. The most striking is an English-like syntax, which is valuable for newbies but of questionable use for more experienced programmers. The second thing to note is that it has a GUI. You don't have to learn a lot of console commands to modify your programs -- you select an object and then it pops up in a local editting window, where you can view all the available methods and instance variables and then mess around with them. Regarding power, I know that it has threads, and I suppose that it has objects (each MUD object being an object). I don't know if it has something like closures. At any rate, I get the impression it's not a great place to learn about extremely fancy algorithms. It's a place, as far as I can tell, that is best used to learn those first steps like flow of control, instance variables, and saying *exactly* what you mean. Lex