A few --or perhaps more than a few -- months ago, the tech writer and SciFi author David Brin published an article entitled "Why Johnny Can't Code." The article resonated with me for a few reasons. First, I am a computer dabbler, a 'power-user' (is that word still used) and perhaps even a frustrated proto-programmer. Second, I had recently had reason to use BASIC, (Ron Nicholson's Chipmunk BASIC for a course in probability; I saw first hand how quickly my few remembered keywords could construct elegant small programs to simulate various distributions, without mucking about with Visual Basic or dealing with inelegant spreadsheet methods of achieving the same result. Third, there was admittedly an element of nostalgia in my response to the article. I had taken programming as a Freshman in high school, and back then BASIC was just about it for teaching programming. I didn't pursue the subject, but as noted above have always been interested in the subject, sort of a vicarious geek.
I have decided the only way to satisfy both my nostalgia and inner geekhood is to (re)learn basic. This blog will be a chronicle of that process. The language is somewhat changed, even in Nicholson's retro version. It can be more or less used in a structured programming paradigm. And that is how I will approach it, unlearning some deeply buried bad habits, learning to plan the project, write the pseudocode , create and test programs, debug and modify the things. No doubt the tasks I set myself will be heavily statistics and game theory related, as my 'day job' interests lie in those areas. My system is a Mac, and I will be using TextWrangler as an editor .. for now. More of substance to follow shortly, including my plan of attack .
