Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news.swapon.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Paul E Bennett Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Program or be Programmed ! Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:36:12 +0000 Organization: Hidecs Consultancy Lines: 58 Message-ID: References: <98f287f7-fc54-4cd6-95c5-3c62100c89fd@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Trace: individual.net O53i5wmaIPI5i6CnwHopSQnUZW8HUoDP4YFHwaG9ptjs4kO0L6 Cancel-Lock: sha1:72Rer5vJR174H6SuhFmbzVNnNIs= User-Agent: KNode/4.11.4 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:34748 visualforth@rocketmail.com wrote: > I just started to read Douglas Rushkoff's book "Program or be Programmed" > and found some lines which should tell us that it is an important task of > us to educate young people in programming: > > "Computers and networks finally offer us the ability to write. And we do > write with them on our websites, blogs, and social networks. But the > underlying capability of the computer era is actually programming -- which > almost none of us knows how to do . We simply use the programs that have > been made for us, and enter our text in the appropriate box on the screen. > We teach kids how to use software to write, but not how to write software > . This means they have access to the capabilities given to them by others, > but not the power to determine the value-creating capabilities of these > technologies for themselves." > > We should be proud that with the power of Forth we can teach kids how to > write software, to give them access to the power to determine the > value-creating capabilities of this technology for themselves. > > I accidentally found this by a special e-book offer from O/R Books: > http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/program/ > > And I am sure another one is worth reading: "Technocreep - The Surrender > of Privacy" by Thomas P. Keenan, > http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/technocreep/ > > And there are more: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/ > I am writing this because this offer is available this week only, with O/R > books celebrating it's fifth birthday. Of course these books are available > as printed books, too. I ordered "Autopilot" as printed edition. I managed to outline the very basics of Forth to a 5 year-old at a recent Imagineering Exhibition. In about 5 minutes spent with him he managed to grasp the concepts of the parameter stack and postfix operations. He was, to admit, quite bright in that he had suggested a small modification to the programme I was running on the stand. I was displaying a sine-wave of asterix characters scrolling continuously down the screen. 3 lines of code generated the sine-wave (and cosine) numbers and the other 30 or so lines did scaling and arrangements for its display. I was showing the source code in a separate window. With a bit of role play in the class-room and the aid of a few blocks and sheets of acrylic and some dry marker pens (shame we can't use chalk anymore) Forth would be a very good language to teach our primary school children. It would probably not take many sessions of this before you could let them loose on a Forth on a computer and have them programming for real. There are some tutorial books that can help the teachers at this level too. -- ******************************************************************** Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET..... Forth based HIDECS Consultancy............. Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972 Tel: +44 (0)1235-510979 Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk.. ********************************************************************