And now for something completely different

[FourthWorld]

Rather than looking at ways to write in LiveCode and have layers of translation produce executable JavaScript, what if we identify what we like in xTalk that isn't in JS and write libraries and tutorials to make it easier for xTalkers to learn JS?

[richmond62]

If one has a sufficiently adaptable brain that should not be necessary.

Those who don't will have learnt xTalk like parrots, without learning how to think computationally.

I have been fooling around with Greenfoot (educational sort of IDE for school) and, although I don't like the underlying language, found no great difficulty modifying existing scripts to do other things.

A thing to assist xTalk programmers to 'transition' to JS would, I suspect, have no takers.

[FourthWorld]

Given the current negative growth rate for the xTalk population, you may well be right.

[richmond62]

Perhaps I should also point out that, over the last 12 years, children who have attended my LC short course in the summer and have gone on to learn C++, Python, Javascript, and C# have reported that they have been able to get started and up to speed with those languages much more quickly than children who have either learnt no previous programming language, or just farted around with Scratch.

xTalk as an 'entry-level' thing for school children is fantastic, and that is why I am putting together a 'HyperStudio' front-end for it, so that it can be used to accelerate children, NOT to spend their lives working with LC/OXT/WTF xTalk variant, but to give them a 'big kick' in the right direction, when sitting them down as 'programming virgins' in front of any of those languages I listed above would have them running for the hills.

This is far, far better than simply using HyperStudio, as that has 'degenerated' to the point of "No Code" (to borrow a phrase from some people who may be committing hari-kiri), so, while with HyperStudio, one can create jolly multimedia confections, one cannot learn how to think computationally.

[richmond62]

There may be some people who want to teach the world to sing in perfect xTalk. I am a bit too sanguine to want that, think it is possible, or even desirable.

However I have never really liked water-wings or those silly little wheels attached to the sides of children's bikes.

Most of us, on learning to ride bikes, go on to drive cars; very few go on to become trick cyclists.

So, I like to think of xTalk as a bike with no silly side wheels.