So I found this video watching a NerdCubed video and it really put coding into a whole other perspective for me and I was wondering what you guys thought of it. It makes sense to me at least.

Nice! But I hate how he dissed TI-BASIC... but that's understandable, coming from him, I guess.

Yeah I only like it because of the point he made about programming in general including TI-BASIC

As soon as he kicked off by using 'quirky' as a compliment, I figured it'd go downhill from there... he caught me off guard, though, that was really entertaining and well-put-together! Thanks for sharing this.


I mean, it wasn't exactly an unfounded insult... it really isn't a great language. It's fun to mess around in, sure, but there's so little you can do with it.

I agree, many of the greatest games or most useful programs, they really push the limits of what the language can do. TI-89 BASIC is better than TI-83+ BASIC, but if you know TI-83+ BASIC, it's hard to understand (from the perspective of a person who could barely program a simple guessing game ).

Shells can be made in BASIC, however...

(Nicholas looks at his progress)

Thanks for sharing this video. I think I should start making some videos myself, because he made almost the same points I make in my "Programming" book, namely:
1) Any programming language will teach you to "think like a programmer", so picking an easy, understandable one first is a good idea (TI-BASIC!).
2) Learning programming should be problem-driven, not language-driven. You shouldn't set out to learn C or TI-BASIC, you should set out to learn how to transform an idea you want to create into code. That's one of the things I think TI-BASIC is particularly good at.
3) A beginner programming language should be super-easy to get started in; the less you have to download, configure, compile, install, debug, and troubleshoot your tools, the better. TI-BASIC is great for that. Plus, who wants to type public static void and System.out.println when "Disp" is an option?

Just my two cents.