Ah, well Java might be good, but all I've seen are interpreted apps (via the 
JVM). I'll admit I don't know the whole 'cup' of Java ;) though...

I also am not familiar with a lot of robust, well featured, BASICs that 
generate single executables, are not interpreted, and are cross platform. Plus, 
Basic, depending on the dialect, tends to allow anything in the way of 
programming and isn't object oriented. I suspect OO is still the big thing, 
isn't it?

As this is his first serious programming learnin' (he's a real beginner with 
Perl and Basic so far, but he needs to focus on one thing and decide which that 
will be), something with constraints that might keep his head in the right 
direction would be preferable. Otherwise I'd bet "GOTO" will creep into the 
code somewhere... ;) And "5 yrs in BASIC programming" isn't what it used to be 
on the resume! ;)

10 yrs ago I would have bet on Perl, but while it's really cool and useful, it 
is limited. A gui and open compiler might have changed that, and it's not the 
easiest to get good at. Java might be good, but what about development 
environments? From what I've seen, a good graphical programming environment 
lets the beginner start quickly, and if the language is logical and reasonable 
underneath, they gradually move to an editor to code. Insulating the app from 
the gui seems to be important. With C, that's impossible. VB or Delphi do a 
good job. I don't know about Java. I also haven't seen many big apps, more like 
applets. It makes me wonder how big one can go there.



William "Chops" Westfield wrote:
> On Mar 28, 2008, at 3:19 PM, Dr Skip wrote:
> 
> I didn't see Java on either your "maybe" or "reject" list?
> 
> Alas, writing GUI apps seems to be more about familiarizing yourself  
> with a set of libraries (or "classes") than mastering the language  
> itself.
> 
> You didn't mention Basic-like languages other than VB: RealBasic for  
> instance (not free, but not too expensive, either...)
> 
> BillW
> 
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