LOGO-L> Re: Why not a sequential ToonTalk?

[bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey)]

"Ken Kahn" <KenKahn@ToonTalk.com> writes:
>I agree with Wen that it is difficult for some people (adults) to
>like/accept non-sequential programming. And they may prefer teaching kids
>sequential languages. But I believe kids who have never programmed expect
>computations to be concurrent. The world around them is concurrent - cars
>are driving, birds are flying, kids are playing soccer, and so on. They can
>walk and talk at the same. And forces are concurrent - they toss a ball on a
>windy day and both gravity and the wind act upon it. What is natural about
>sequential procedure calls?

My question is, why does it have to be either/or?  StarLogo is about as
parallel as a language can get, but it still allows composition of
functions where that's appropriate.

When kids play games, there are lots of sequential things that happen.
First you hit the ball, then you run around the bases.  I think this
business about sequential VERSUS parallel is a red herring.  The question
is why you feel the need to throw 3,000 years of mathematics out the
window just because you have a new idea -- can't you still remember the
old ideas?  (Just in case it's not obvious, the 3,000 years are about
composition of functions.)

In fact, from my point of view, it's particularly ironic that you use
"sequential" as a dirty word, since TT is much *more* sequential than
any other programming language I've ever seen, even BASIC.  Where I can
say
	(2+3) * (4+5)
putting my focus on the answer I want, you have to say
	pick up a 2
	put it in a box
	pick up a 3
	put it on top of the box
	wait a few minutes while they get bammed together
	now put that down and pick up another box
	pick up a 4
	put it in a box
	pick up a 5
	put it on top of the box
	wait a few more minutes
	get the 9 out of the box
	somehow (I haven't gotten that far yet) put a times sign
	  in front of it
	now pick up the 5 from the 2+3
	put it on the X9
	wait some more
You call that not sequential?


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