David Empson wrote:
Ernest <ernestls@home.NOSPAM.com> wrote:
<anip>
These all have manuals and disks. Is there anything else that you would recommend for a beginner?I started by being taught Pascal at high school (Apple II Pascal), which was a big help as it established good programming discipline. I then taught myself BASIC (Applesoft), 6502 machine code, then started using assemblers (the mini-assembler, LISA, Big Mac, Merlin Pro and ultimately Merlin 8/16+). I'd strongly recommend getting hold of Pascal and learning that first. If you can't manage that, then BASIC is your next best choice. I wouldn't suggest trying to anything major in assembly language until you are a confident BASIC programmer. The difficulty with starting by learning programming with old versions of BASIC (like Applesoft) is that you are likely to pick up bad habits. The main reason is that it forces you to use the GOTO statement, which can make a complicated program very hard to understand unless it is used carefully.
I agree. Cutting ones teeth on Pascal is a good idea. There are C compilers for the //e (Aztec is the one which comes to mind). Unfortunately C has it's own problems. Mostly in the relatively obscure syntax and error messages.
For a barebones two (or more) floppy, //e system Apple Pascal is a good place to start. If he has a CP/M card then Turbo Pascal is also very good but a little hard to find.
As I recall there are also a few FORTH compilers as well. Apple also released LOGO and FORTRAN. There was something called Pilot a while back. Once someone knows how to program well, that is when they should consider Assembler.
With a CP/M card there are more programming languages to choose from. Unfortunately they are harder to find than the Apple// stuff.
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