ActionScript as a teaching language

[Yanni Chiu]

Stewart C. Russell wrote:
> If I were to be teaching a language, I'd want:
>  * block structure
>  * painless associative arrays/hashes (computers aren't just about
>    numbers)
>  * typelessness, for the most part (1 equals "1"; don't make me
>    have to worry about details)
>  * flexible and obvious data structure definition/use (I love Perl's
>    flexibility here, but the syntax would be odious to explain)
>  * simple graphics capabilities (maybe I'm showing my age here, but
>    the ability to draw stuff without having to worry about OS
>    dependencies would be a big help; people like pretty pictures)
>  * copious and sensible debugging/error messages.
> ...
> Incidentally, I haven't yet found one language that does all that, and 
> I've been looking for about 20 years.

Have you ever looked at Smalltalk? It satisfies every single
one of the requirements you listed.

There's a free version available at www.squeak.org.
And for teaching (i.e. approx. Grade 5's) there's the
EToys environment (built on Squeak Smalltalk), at:
www.squeakland.org.

To help learn Smalltalk there are free books at:
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html

BTW, Ruby, which was also suggested, is modelled after Smalltalk.

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