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From: winikoff@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Michael David WINIKOFF)
Subject: Re: Wanted: programming language for 9 yr old
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Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 01:07:32 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.misc:23348 comp.lang.prolog:13986

rgb@banjo.dsi.com (Randy Brown) writes:

[stuff about predicate logic being hard deleted]

>Right.  That's why it's hard.  The child whould have to know formal
>logic for Prolog to make any sense at all.  Now perhaps kids should
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And a little later writes ...


>such a creature definitely exists.  But teaching Prolog means teaching
					 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>predicate logic, and then Prolog, and then you have to go back and
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>explain the operational behaviour of Prolog to explain the pretty
>pictures that any but the most motivated 9 year old will want to see
>drawn by their program.

That's where the argument fails ... whether logic is hard is endlessly
debatable .. however without the underlines assumption that you're making
it's irrelevant to the question of whether logic programming is hard.

Don't be confused by the name ... logic programming does not neccessarily
require logical knowledge on the part of the user/programmer ...

(BTW, followups to this thread should perhaps leave out 
	comp.lang.{lisp,scheme,logo} and include comp.lang.prolog)

Michael


>	-Randy
