From: Endlisnis <s257m AT unb DOT ca>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Teaching a child to program in C
Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 19:55:08 -0300
Organization: NBTel Internet
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <35F5B5CC.70FCD2CC@unb.ca>
References: <000e01bddb65$42044d80$dc4d08c3 AT arthur>
NNTP-Posting-Host: fctnts13c58.nbnet.nb.ca
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Precedence: bulk

Arthur wrote:
> > The best programming language for a child (or other beginner)
> > is SQL. Tell the child that they can make each of the monsters,
> > events, weapons, treasures, magic spells, and walls in their
> > favorite computer game into database tables, and you will
> > write a program to animate that database into a game.

> That's analogous to getting the child to design lego bricks and then their
> dad makes a model with them.

> SQL? Can you do anything in SQuirreL except program databases? It's one of
> the most powerful, and hence complex, languages available - I can't get the
> version that's built into (is?) Access to do anything at all. And that's me
> with eight years of programming knowledge of BASIC, C, C++ and ASM.
	I agree with your first paragraph, but SQL is not complex.  I taught myself
it (with a book) in about 10 minutes.  It has less keywords than C, and the
structure of the language is simpler than C.

Select * from MyBase a, YourBase b where a.Name="Fred" and a.Age>b.Age

	What is so difficult about that?
-- 
     (\/) Endlisnis (\/)
          s257m AT unb DOT ca
          Endlisnis AT GeoCities DOT com
          Endlis AT nbnet DOT nb DOT ca