Question for Creative and Emergence Basic users

[David]

I have a question for people who use both Creative and Emergence Basic. If someone only wanted to learn one of them and didn't know anything about either language, do you think it would make much difference which one they chose?

[barry]

I don't think I know either of these languages well enough to answer this.  I've only played with them a little.  But in general, I think it makes a lot less difference which language you pick as your first programming language, if this will be your first language, than that you get started with the promise to yourself that you'll stick with it for a couple months.  There's always a bit of confusion at first and you need to get past that before giving up.  That's true with any language.

Usually interpretted languages are easier to learn than compiled languages but compiled languages are more capable after you've learned them.  CBasic is interpretted and EBasic is compiled.  Both of these are pretty simple to learn so the difference is small.

Another thing to consider, if this is your first language, is that learning a second language is far easier than learning the first language.  So you might want to pick one, learn it till you're comfortable with it and then try the other one to see what you think.

And there's this, although I suspect a lot of people will disagree with me about this:  I think it's just as easy, and maybe even easier, to learn two languages as to learn one.  That's because by learning two of them you get a little more perspective and a little broader view of some of the concepts.

Barry

[SnarlingSheep]

Since you are starting from scratch, I don't think one will be easier than the other to learn.
I do, however, think that Emergence will give you more to work with later on.
I have a hard time learning Emergence now, because I already know Creative.
I think if I had the chance to learn Emergence(Pro) instead of Creative(Std) back then, it would have been better in the end as Emergence is a more powerful, flexible language.

Before anyone yells at me, I have nothing against Creative and it(Std) was a big stepping stone in my learning programming, but it is what it is and Emergence is more powerful.

[GWS]

David, EBasic and CBasic are very similar.  I can work for a week or so on a program using CBasic syntax, and convert it to EBasic (if necessary) by slightly changing a few statements and adding 'end sub's in EBasic subroutines just to keep it happy.

I don't know ('cos the boss keeps things close to his chest ), but when version 1.1 of CBasic comes along in the next few months, there may be even more similarities ..

The underlying Basic language is strongly common to both - so playing with CBasic with it's simple write and run method of creating a program - is a very comfortable environment to learn in.

Of course EBasic is the senior language and has more graphics and OOP facilities if an application needs those.

I'm biased - I love CBasic and find it does most of what I want ..    When it gets it's compile legs it will be just as fast ..

Sheep is probably right though that some folk have a need for more a powerful command set, and EBasic will be their choice.
I see it as a sort of superset of CBasic .. 

In general though, I'm looking for fun rather than power .. 

all the best,

Graham

[David]

I'll tell you why I ask. I had a quick look through the documentation that David Coker kindly posted today, and at first glance it seemed very similar to EBasic. However, there is such a buzz about CBasic that I just wanted to know why. Perhaps Graham summed it up pretty well:

In general though, I'm looking for fun rather than power

Thanks for the replies.