Re: Which Programming Language

[sbehrens@contech.demon.co.uk (Soenke Behrens)]

Mark,

schooley@nps.navy.mil (Mark A. Schooley) wrote:

>I am considering purchasing a programming language/environment
>and I was hoping that some of the old pros out there could steer
>me in the right direction.

>First, I have a some experience programming in AppleSoft BASIC, and
>I was looking to maybe start programming in C or Assembly.  I am
>going to admit that I am a neophyte programmer in anything other
>than BASIC.  

>Basically, what should the first language after BASIC be?  C?  
>Assembly?  PASCAL?  ???

>My computer is an Apple II GS, 4 Meg RAM, 100 Meg Hard Drive (SCSI), 
>2400 Baud Datalink Modem, 2 5.25 Drives and 2 3.5 Drives.

Hmm. Assembly is useful for speeding certain routines up (_after_ you have
double-checked your use of data structures and algorithms), but I wouldn't
really use it as a general-purpose programming language. I find it too
deep-down to be easily grasped. Your mileage may vary, of course.

As a beginner, I'd recommend Modula-2, actually. It has the good things of
Pascal (fairly safe language) without the bad things (too restrictive to be
useful). And it can compile Pascal programs with just a little tweaking.

The drawback is: There's not a lot of code for it. If you are mainly
interested in porting things or swapping code, C is for you: ORCA/C, in
that case. If you wish to give Modula-2 a whirl, there are two packages
available: EMBE/Modula-2, which is shareware, and ORCA/Modula-2.

Whatever language you use in the end, get yourself a copy of GNO/ME. It is
simply _the_ programmer's shell to use on the GS.

Yours
Soenke
--
I don't know what it is he's doing, it must be art