Re: No more BASIC for MAC?

[Bob Muir <muirrob@hamlet.uncg.edu>]

On Thu, 23 Jan 1997, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> > I've just been told from a vendor that no version of BASIC exists for the
> > PowerMac. So what are people using when they want to do some quick and
> > dirty programing on a Mac these days? (Please don't tell me I have to learn
> > C!! Please! Surely there is something easier.)
>
> Use Fortran. There is a free package on the Web which works just fine!
> See http://www.fortner.com/docs/product_fortran.html for a free DEMO
> compiler. It does all I would want to do.
>
> On the other hand, I'm learning C this semester by taking a computational
> physics course from one of my colleagues. We have a lab full of PPCs and
> Code Warrior as a compiler. I'm 61 years old, a Fortran user for more than
> forty years, and I've heard that story about teaching old canines. It's
> untrue. Learn C. My son has been bugging me to do so for more than ten
> years. I now know that he was right.
>
> Leigh

I want to put a plug in for the language cT (written by Bruce Sherwood,
et. al., at Carnegie Mellon).  It, too, is modern and easy to learn.  If
you have seen the programs Graphs & Tracks and EMField, they were written
in cT.  It is exceptionally easy to do graphics in cT.  You can produce
machine independent programs, Win, Mac, and Unix, and programs that take
into account the screen size and resolution of the user.  There are bells
and whistles to handle student responses including mouse clicks, on screen
buttons, and written responses, so that it is easy to write interactive
programs (as illustrated by the two mentioned above).

I have NEARLY finished a program to illustrate what is going on with the
calculus when calculating the electric field on the axis of a charged
ring.  I am close to placing it on my course web page so the students (and
you folks) can download it.  I have been thinking of learning cT for some
time and took this problem as an opportunity to do it.  I found the
language very easy to learn.

It is available (I don't have the price handy) from 
	Physics Acacemic Software
	c/o TASL
	Box 8202
	North Carolina State University
	Raleigh, NC 27695-8202
	voice:	(800) 955-TASL or (919) 515-7447
	fax:	(919) 515-2682

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* bob muir                 voice: (910) 334-5669        *
* physics & astron.        e-mail: bob_muir@uncg.edu    *
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