[Wolves] Basic programming language for linux

[Andy Wootton]

Mark Ellse wrote:
> Does anyone know/recommend a version of Basic for linux that I can get 
> for my son?
>
> Mark
I was looking for a famous quotation about BASIC but I came across this 
instead:

"Yuck! Don't learn BASIC! Please! I first learnt to program in BASIC, 
when I was about 12, and it took me years to repair the damage it did to 
my programming instincts. BASIC makes it easy to program badly and 
almost impossible to program well. See here 
<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/jargon/html/B/BASIC.html> for a few reasons 
why.

There are some BASIC variants that aren't quite so bad -- MS Visual 
Basic is vaguely tolerable, since it doesn't enforce line numbering and 
has vaguely non-gruesome handling of subroutines and variable-size 
arrays -- but they're still fundamentally BASIC-based.

I'd suggest Python as a good, clean, simple, morally right beginner's 
language, which will enable you to get simple programs up and running 
fast without permanently stunting your programming skills."