Comment by rbanffy
3 hours ago
> Basic is just not particular useful and has a lot of funny behavior or missing parts for any serious project.
I think it is an interesting teaching tool. It has a lot of limitations that place it close to the machine level - all variables being global, no real named functions, and so on. It grounds the expectations about what a computer can and can't do - all the fancy things we do are smoke and mirrors layered on top of a very simple machine.
It is true, I did learn Basic (QBasic) first, as elementary school student, and C second. What made it particular good was the F1 help. I think it is still one of the best help systems I ever used. Good intro and F1 while pointing on any function and instant help, easy to understand. Additionally no complicated include and compiling. But at the same time, I think I could also teach simple C or JS to an elementary school student. It is just the help and runtime that is bad. Somehow still today there is no major language system that does all of this well. Curious...
I’ve taught Python to primary school kids (which I think is the same age group as elementary school).