In article <[log in to unmask]>, "Roger H. Levy"
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>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."  Since my son has already written Visual
>Basic programs, I was concerned that he might not get a lot from this class
>but the teacher claims that he will be learning about data bases by using
>Reflection.  "Working with records" and "end of file marks" were mentioned
>as the valuable lessons.  Based on those claims, Reflection sounds more
>like a file management system than a data base system.  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?  Thanks.
>(Note: based on old (20+ years old!) knowledge of HP 3000s, I have assumed
>this is the appropriate newsgroup).
>
>R. Levy

Reflection is a terminal emulator that lets you use your PC as if it
were a boring old green-screen terminal, of the type you would have met
20 years ago. It gives you a lot more of course, with cut-and-paste,
color, printing and stuff, but really it's just a gateway to the HP3000.
It does have a scripting language, so you can automate terminal
sessions, but I doubt they are teaching your son to use that.

Most likely, it just puts his PC in touch with Basic on the HP3000.

As to the value of what they can teach him?

Hope that he can learn procedural programming, like most commercial
stuff still is, to contrast with the event-driven model he will have
picked up from Visual Basic.

Hope that, as the teacher says, he can learn about file handling, like
most commercial stuff has, to contrast with the in-memory model you use
when writing games and web stuff.

Hope that he can learn about structuring a significant-sized program so
that it is easier to check for bugs and to maintain for the future, to
contrast with working with the 'bag of bits' that a Visual Basic program
tends to be.

I can paint a ceiling pretty well, but not like a craftsman can, and I
surely couldn't add a rumpus room to my home. So hope finally that he
can learn about the differences between home-grown and professional
code, why they matter, and where to use which sort. This matters just as
much whether he goes on to spend his life as a developer, or purely as a
guy who uses our services.


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