Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth,comp.lang.postscript,comp.windows.news,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Why you should use NeWS as a tool to learn PostScript
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References: <13613@mimsy.UUCP> <3492@phri.UUCP> <23378@wlbr.EATON.COM> <3496@phri.UUCP>
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Reply-To: don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins)
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Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction Lab
Keywords: Forth, Lisp, Interactive PostScript, NeWS

    Date: 20 Sep 88 14:53:14 GMT
    From: phri!roy@nyu.edu  (Roy Smith)
    Subject: Why you shouldn't use NeWS as a tool to learn PostScript

    [...]
    I still maintain that NeWS is different enough from PostScript to
    make in inadvisable to use the former as a tool for learning the latter.
    -- 
    Roy Smith, System Administrator
    Public Health Research Institute
    {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net
    "The connector is the network"

My argument, which applies to interpretive languages in general, is
that it's easier to learn a language in an interactive programming
environment than in a batch environment. Direct access and immediate
feedback gives a programmer immersed in an interpretive environment
intimate experience with the language, and incentive to experiment.

The problems that you describe are minor compatibility issues, not
fundamental learnability issues.

PostScript is very different than the languages most people are used
to.  The syntax of PostScript is extremely simple, but if you're ever
going to be able to harness its power, you've got to understand the
semantics. And playing around with an interactive interpreter is a
quick and fun way to find out how it works.

The fact that the PostScript interpreter in NeWS is different than the
PostScript interpreter (whatever brand it is) that runs in your laser
printer doesn't mean that it's harder to learn PostScript in NeWS. Of
course NeWS is different: it has extensions, and it has bugs. But the
fact that NeWS is an interactive programming environment that can give
immediate visual feedback on the screen is a far more important issue
to someone interested in learning a new language.

Metaphorically, I'm saying that it's better to learn Spanish by living
in Spain, than by writing letters to people in Spain. You're saying
that it's inadvisable to learn Spanish by living to Spain, if you want
to write letters to people in Mexico. c(-;

	-Don
	don@brillig.umd.edu
	...!uunet!mimsy!don