Hi, everyone

TL;DR - post below your suggestion for a good programming language for an almost-rookie teacher/educator/writer to start using.

More info: I am trying to decide on which programming language to learn. I know my way around HTML and CSS from being active online, but haven’t done much programming apart from this. I write, teach, and work with digital teaching/learning products a lot. In 2021, I think there will be plenty of time for me to start working with programming. I don’t mean just “learn to code” - I mean using the language(s) as an educator/writer/publisher. Libre / open source context preferred. Which languages look like they fit the bill, Lemmy?

  • acidwash jeans@lemmy.ml
    0·
    4 years ago

    LISP

    It’s easier to get into than you’d think – and SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, a seminal text) is written in Scheme, a Lisp. LISP

    • Echedenyan@lemmy.ml
      0·
      4 years ago
      (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
     ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
          ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
))))))))))))))))))))))
))))))))))))

      If I can use the parenthesis in the way that keys or tags in XML are used (as true trees) then I will accept it.

      However, this is not common nor the standard way which make examples harder to help with learning.

        • Echedenyan@lemmy.ml
          0·
          4 years ago

          I think you mean SXML which is a variation of XML with S-Expressions.

          But what I mean is writting Lisp like a XML tree which would be pretty similar to SXML for readability.

          • acidwash jeans@lemmy.ml
            0·
            4 years ago

            I actually haven’t heard of SXML, so I meant regular lisp. For me, I just mean that this is pretty tree-based, so far as I can tell (I’m not an actual programmer, though, which might be the issue with my understanding):

            (defun foo (bar baz)
  (if (predicate)
      (do if true)
    (do if false)))
            • Echedenyan@lemmy.ml
              0·
              4 years ago

              This is an XML tree:

              This is an SXML tree compared with an XHTML (XML based HTML) tree:

              SXML uses the standard S-Expressions syntax but what I expect is being able to use more this:

              (*TOP* 
  (@ 
    (*NAMESPACES* 
      (x "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml")
    )
  )
  (x:html 
    (@ 
      (xml:lang "en") 
      (lang "en")
    )
    (x:head
       (x:title "An example page")
    )
    (x:body
      (x:h1 
        (@ 
          (id "greeting")
        ) 
        "Hi, there"
      )
      (x:p  "This is just an >>example<< to show XHTML & SXML.")
    )
  )
)

              I think that most people liking Lisp don’t want to change the current formatting standard and maybe most of them have eagle view or a good “mind parser” but it is more readable for me writing like this. I can identify errors easily and I don’t have to count the parenthesis as I have been doing for reading Scheme and Lisp basic programs well.

              I also combine this with tabulation of 4 characters instead of soft-tabs (real white spaces) of 2 characters like some people do due to the JS influence.

              • acidwash jeans@lemmy.ml
                2·
                4 years ago

                Oh, well if you just mean a formatting thing – you can format a source file however you want :) But yeah, that’s not really the popular way to do it. For me, just the opening tags + indentation work well enough to delimit everything, but to each their own.