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From: micha@ecrc.de (Micha Meier)
Subject: Re: Wanted: programming language for 9 yr
Message-ID: <DGw77F.C0L@ecrc.de>
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Organization: European Computer-Industry Research Centre
References: <467j4o$30q@otis.netspace.net.au>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 08:21:14 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.misc:23493 comp.lang.prolog:14060

Typed languages are IMHO not at all suitable for 9yr children. From that point
of view, Prolog is a good choice. As far as the difficult operational semantics
is concerned, noone says that children have to program with cuts and negations.
They normally do not have fixed programming tasks, i.e. 'write a program that
does XY', but rather 'write a program in this language that does something
interesting and is easy to write in this language'.
However, better than Prolog is CLP(FD). This gives the children a very powerful
language with a very simple interface and semantics. Of course no global
constraints or complicated stuff, just #=, #<, #\= etc. I think that children
can have a lot of fun with it, especially taken into account all these
puzzles that can be solved.

--Micha

---
Micha Meier			------------------------------------------------
ECRC, Arabellastr. 17		The opinions expressed above are private
D-81925 Munich 81		and may not reflect those of my employer.
micha@ecrc.de, Tel. +49-89-92699-108, Fax  +49-89-92699-170

