[Year 12 Its] Programming languages - IT 1&2 & Software 3&4

[Con Zymaris]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 08:36:41AM +1000, gordonp at horsham-college.vic.edu.au wrote:
> Yes Con i know it comes from one of evil software vendors, but it is 
> very good, and another way to get kids enjoying their programming 
> (almost as good as VB!) 


So that we're all clear on this, my argument has nothing to do with 'evil 
software vendors'. It has everything to do with DET being lodged so 
thoroughly in the proprietary mindset. Yes I know they list PHP etc on the 
accepted languages list, but I don't see the open source indistry being 
given tens of millions of dollars each software refresh cycle, like the 
proprietary software vendors are.

I would posit that preference should always be given to languages which:

a) teach solid software construction skills
b) are industry accepted
c) are available on multiple platforms
b) are available from multiple vendors

Actionscript, however, doesn't need to abide by these rules, as it's not a 
general-purpose programming language. It's something used for the 
construction of animated Flash content, only.

In honesty, I have nothing agains you teaching Actionscript. It's a
domain-specific language in an area where there are no open standards.  
It's a fine choice for developing visual trinkets and games. You want to
entice kids towards programming animation with Actionscript, go for it.
You start pushing Actionscript and Flash as a way to do websites however,
then I have serious concerns. ;-)

And I have a question. If kids aren't interested in learning the technical 
complexities of software construction, why are they doing these subjects? 
Software construction is hard - let no-one tell you otherwise. Even tools 
which make the intial part of software construction easy, through 
drag-drop GUI bulders, don't protect from the hike in complexities which 
come later on in the software development lifecycle.


Cheers,

Con Zymaris

- CEO, Cybersource Pty. Ltd.
- Director, Open Source Industry Australia, Limited.
- Convenor, Open Source Victoria (A Government-funded industry cluster.)
-- 
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Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
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