Mark,
     Good answer... Tho I must point out that the ex-wife was/is doing VB with
Access professionally and even she agrees that she doesn't know Basic all that
well... she uses the Wizards and other add in products for alot of her programs.

    And she uses Crytal Reports for the reporting...she points out that 90% of
the report is done for her by Crystal Reports.

    And how many people learn structured coding by working in these newer PC
based languages???

    COBOL is an excellent suggestion for a language tho :)

Art Bahrs

>>> Mark Landin <[log in to unmask]> 01/16/97 06:08am >>>
In article <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
says...
>
>I'm trying to determine the value of the introductory programming course
>taught at my son's high school.  They use an HP-3000 to teach Basic and
>something called "Reflection."  .... Can someone comment
>on whether HP-3000 Basic and Reflection is of significant value to a teen
>who has written games in Visual Basic and constructed Web pages?  If the
>value is low, how can my son learn enough "Reflection" to place out of the
>introductory course via a proficiency exam?
>
>R. Levy

Reflection is a terminal emulation product, not a programming tool. It is
possible to write scripts in Reflection to automate some processes, like
logging on or starting a file transfer, but I can't imagine that Reflection is
going to be a major part of the syllabus of that course.

As to how valuable BASIC will be to your son, it all depends. Certainly, if
this course were just a course about BASIC, then it would probably be
worthless. However, if the course is a general programming course, and BASIC
just happens to be the language they pick, then it will be useful. If they are
doing some file and record manipulation stuff, then it sounds more like a
general programming course to me.

However, if possible, I would recommend your son take a programming course
using COBOL instead. That way he can learn a new language AND new programming
techniques at the same time. COBOL is pretty simple to learn, but in the
business world it still has no competitor as far as installed lines of code
goes. Even if he never uses COBOL again in his life, learning your second
computer language can be very enlightening.

In any case, Reflection is not a programming tool at all. If the class had a
bunch of HP terminals instead of PC's to log on to the 3000, you wouldn't even
be using Reflection.