Do they still teach BASIC computer programming? (schools, computer science, graduates)

[Coney]

Originally Posted by otowi

If you're talking about kids, things have changed a ton since we were kids - they often now start with visual/object based programming and can start in very early grades, almost before kids can even read. It seems kind of like playing a video game but basically builds a program using programming logic but without the syntax - instead there are pictures or blocks in place of the syntax. For languages, there are some used primarily for teaching youth. Python is a very common one.

See https://hourofcode.com/us/learn and have fun!

Yeah, hour of code is very good. Hopscotch is another visual/object based programming teaching tool. Did you notice how some of the games/formats cater to girls? You can use these formats with 6 year olds. No need to be great at typing or to remember to use brackets and ;. That's for older kids.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

I learned programming with BASIC in 1979, one of the first Apple Computers. That was the only language you could use on that, except assembly, which I never could understand.

I started a university in 1982 and they had just switched from FORTRAN to Pascal. They had also switched from cards to video monitors.

Do they still use BASIC or Pascal for teaching?

BASIC evolved to Visual Basic in the 1990s for Windows Visual Studio.
Old-school Visual Basic was a procedural type of programming language
that was great in producing User Interface applications. It was set on
COM compliant programming.

But Visual Basic 6.0 was gradually replaced by Visual Basic.Net and C# in
the early 2000s. It hit its peak about ten years ago but has since been
slowly replaced in popularity by Java, Python, JavaScript, Linux, Go, Swift, etc.

Colleges still use C/C++ to teach programming. The idea is that it is a
"harder" language to learn but makes it easier to grasp Java, Python, or
JavaScript in the working world.

A big part of compute science curricula is discrete math and its use in
data structures and algorithms: stack, heap, linked list, hash map,
binary search tree, sorting, etc. Then advanced courses build on that such
as aritificial intelligence and the heurisitc search. Graph theory is heavily used
in computer engineering and computer science.

So, BASIC is gone. I have not seen Pascal and Fortran since the 1990s heavily used.
The last time I Fortran was unusual - a mechanical engineer applied it to numerical
methods saying "it still works". But in a typical company, numerical methods would likely
be done with a Java Apache library or Python NumPy.

[MLSFan]

what counts as basic programming?

I remember being told to open notepad and learning html for webdesign... years later, I had to take another class with webpages, but then they gave us dreamweaver and said this is how to make a webpage, gone was all the html and manual entry programming, and it was all gui and drag/drop what you want where you want it on the webpage

im not sure "basic" programming is pushed so much as design these days where the software does the programming, and the user designs the result

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by grad_student200

BASIC evolved to Visual Basic in the 1990s for Windows Visual Studio.
Old-school Visual Basic was a procedural type of programming language
that was great in producing User Interface applications. It was set on
COM compliant programming.

But Visual Basic 6.0 was gradually replaced by Visual Basic.Net and C# in
the early 2000s. It hit its peak about ten years ago but has since been
slowly replaced in popularity by Java, Python, JavaScript, Linux, Go, Swift, etc.

Are you saying that Visual Basic.Net hit its peak about 10 years ago? Or are you saying that C# hit its peak about 10 years ago? Or both?

[DanArt]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

I learned programming with BASIC in 1979, one of the first Apple Computers. That was the only language you could use on that, except assembly, which I never could understand.


I started a university in 1982 and they had just switched from FORTRAN to Pascal. They had also switched from cards to video monitors.


Do they still use BASIC or Pascal for teaching?

Now that you mention it. We had this conversation in programming class. FORTRAN is a popular talk among retired professors but it is not cumming back. BASIC is used for MSX machines and can be implanted into Windows 9x.

Again check the MSX forums to see if they need a basic programmer or even the PCE forums.

Windows is Visual Basic and it is mostly taught in C/C++ and Java series.
Visual Basic but not orgiinal BASIC.

[sonderella]

My 9th grader learned Python. She's at a STEM school, and that's what the business community said they wanted to see, so that's what the school is teaching.

She has another language next year, but I'm not sure what it is yet.

[Coney]

Most middle schools these days are teaching computer literacy. They could start with a drag and drop block program platform, eventually transitioning to Python or JS. Once you've got the fundamentals of Python, it's not hard to learn JS or vice-versa. I think they should start teaching R in high school too.

Generation Z will have learned this in regular K-12 school. Milennials, if they haven't already, will find that they need to take outside courses to catch up, much the same way that Boomers had to to take outside courses/training to learn Microsoft Office Suite applications.

[Bettafish]

Introductory courses are either in Python or C++, with very few exceptions.

[Nathan777]

Java or Python seem to be the introductory courses. I'm a graduate student of programming and haven't even been exposed to Basic. It's fairly deprecated.

[DanArt]

A quick mention about BASIC. You have variants of BASIC as with Java. BASIC is literally the ground root of Visual Basic and if you plan to make programs specifically for windows ( Starting with 3.0 ) you will without a doubt be working with a compiler written for Visual Basic. Basic is Microsofts flagshipp programming language and Visual Basic replaces this. You should also note VB2005 is the last that compiles for exe after that everything compiles for app AKA Metro and will not be able to run on earlier versions of windows. Why is this important? Because you can make a VB program that does the same job on Windows 3.0. That is right Windows 3.0 is a thing still. Imagine most of everything you do on a W3.0 operating system and can run on Windows 10 ( at least Vista ) as well.

Actually the truth about Java (which I should have respected ) is that %99 of the time you will be programming with Java. Most of the internet ( thanks to tablets ) are literally Java. I even should have realized this when the father of my cousin was dancing around about Java back in the 1990's ( he was into computers ). Now I know why the hard way.

C++ is a low level language with high level moves. You have to make calls to C ( high level language like Java ) or ASM ( low level language near to MACHINE CODE ). Usually C++ will be used with things like Videogames but again they have languages ( like somebody mentioned ) like R or D languages.

Another type of programmer is a front end developer or interpreter languages. I am fond of those but they seem all the rage.

Another thing to note are the IDE ( correct me ) as many of them are variant popular and depepnds on computability. When you get into it.

Originally Posted by jtab4994

Pascal was def the hottest language of 1982!

That is absolutely true. I was in programming class where I was attempting to go back to college and saw an older student. IDK why he is back in school but yes him and the prof was going nuts over Pascal. Pascal was like a dream boat language to my understanding........or was it Forune