Comal windows 7 ?

Monkey Archive Forums/Digital Discussion/Comal windows 7 ?

Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#1]
Hay all.

My son wants to be a games developer, he tells me that every time I ask him what he's planning after school, the funny thing is he plain refuses to let me teach him, I'm not sure if its because he wants to spend his online time with his mates, or he just does not want to learn from me, either way its bloody frustrating.

Anyway, seems that his school has finally started them programming and in comal of all bloody million year old languages, so rather than again try and push him in my direction , I thought it might be better to drop a comal editor and compiler or interpreter onto his pc and just let him mess with it.

looking at the code hes done for school hes grasping the basics pretty quick but Im sure that if I try and get him to work in c or c++ or monkey or blitz for that matter hes just going to push away.

Anyway TLDR:: - is there a comal editor or compiler that will run on windows 7, I think their using macs at his school and I dont have a mac.


rIKmAN(Posted 2013) [#2]
How old is he?
If he is of a certain age you are his Dad = uncool! :)

I would put Blitz2D/Blitz3D onto his PC and let him mess with that.

As soon as he sees graphics moving around the screen in so few lines of code he will be addicted.


c.k.(Posted 2013) [#3]
What is comal?! I've heard of COBOL, but not comal. Is that a British thing? :-)

Google "learn programming free"

Lots of good resources out there, some from universities.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#4]
COMAL is some shit cross between pascal and basic writtin in the stone age by some belgiun guy for outdated computer systems.

it actually makes me mad that their teaching it in schools.

As for Blitz, yeah I have, at the time he said, dad wait till im learning something about it school then ill get into it, Its the DAD AINT COOL factor for sure anything I say he has to do the opposite.

[monkeycode]
IF DAD_LIKES=True
Do something else.
else
Do it to
End if
[/monkeycode]

I had some hope that if I put comal on his PC but it looks like finding an ide or compiler for it is bloody impossible, keep finding mac and linux rubbish :/


dawlane(Posted 2013) [#5]
COMAL haven't heard of that one in a long, long time.
Didn't some one start a ide project along the lines of Visual Basic?
God knows why they're teaching that archaic language. You would have thought that the school would use something a little more up to date.


AdamRedwoods(Posted 2013) [#6]
OpenComal
https://github.com/pietsch/OpenCOMAL


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#7]
dawlane yeah, I'v written a letter to my local MP to have a whinge about it, probably wont help my son but it might help my daughter when she gets to that age.

Adam, I looked at that, but its all linux make files so figured to much hassle to try and compile for windows or dos.


AdamRedwoods(Posted 2013) [#8]
/bin/opencomol.exe
pre-built binaries


GfK(Posted 2013) [#9]
Jeez, do they still do maths lessons with abacusususseses as well?


dawlane(Posted 2013) [#10]
Well at least using an abacus will teach them actually how to use their minds on the actual mechanics of math. Kids in this day and age just push a few buttons on a calculator and think thats all there is to it. I remember the days when such things were considered luxuries and if you got caught using one in an exam; the teachers would take it off you and fail you.

@Taiphoz:
You would have been better writing to the school and asking why the hell are they teaching out dated programming concepts and using a language that's older than god that students would find difficult to set up and cumbersome to use on their computers at home.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if if it turns out that the teacher that came up with this idea of using comal is either someone who wants to go back to the glory days of the BBC B or some young, just left university wet behind the ears type who knows it all and thought that teaching kids a 30+ year old programming language would be a big help in their students future careers.


therevills(Posted 2013) [#11]
When I was at school they slightly taught BBC Micro BASIC, but they more taught Logo (using Turtle)!

I learnt most of my BASIC stuff from Amstrad Action (10 liners FTW!)!


Gerry Quinn(Posted 2013) [#12]
I had to look up Comal!

As an educational language from that era it doesn't look so bad, IMO - at least they didn't have the hatred of Basic that many did.

But any modern Basic would be a better choice - they are all structured now and many are OO. (Monkey has a lot of the same syntax roots.)


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#13]
That MP wrote back asking my address, not sure if he wants to actually visit me, or just confirm that I am part of his constituency ..

As for the Language yeah I agree that its not exactly terrible, for its age, but god it should not be getting taught in todays world, god Pascal itself which comal is a mix of would be far better as its a language in the form of Delphi is actually still in use, and teaches really good flow control and variable declaration habit's.

If this MP comes to visit I will of course be recommending that they should be using Monkey, while its a lot more complex and has the scope to actually do something large scale, as a teaching language it would be able to do just about everything from the very basic, printing hello world to actually showing them something moving on screen.

Not to mention that the demo works in html5 for free, so as a school they would have ZERO financial commitment.


smilertoo(Posted 2013) [#14]
A lot of schools stick with Comal because there's years of teaching materials available for it; moving to something newer would require the teacher to prepare all their own materials and lesson plans.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#15]
so our children get taught out dated practices just because some teacher would have to do a little work, aint that their job ?

If thats the real reason that its all the more reason for me to talk with my local MP, and hell if any of you lot are parents with kids in school its something you should consider as well.

I wonder , Im in Scotland, and our education for High School differs from England any you English tell us what language you got while in High School, im interested in finding out if its the same or if you got something else.

When I was at school I got comal, pascal and bbc basic. seems to me like nothing if anything has changed in fact with them not teaching pascal they may have taken a step backwards.


GfK(Posted 2013) [#16]
When I was at school we didn't do any programming of any kind.

I don't see the point in teaching things which have no real-world value. If teachers can't move with the times and learn modern, valuable things to pass on to their students, then they need a career change.


smilertoo(Posted 2013) [#17]
In Glasgow a lot of secondary schools use VB and realbasic. One problem is that it's all centrally controlled by the council, the teachers/school aren't allowed to add their own choices.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#18]
if you dont mind me asking, but was your school catholic? or non denomination ?

I ask because mine was catholic, but my son is in a non denomination school and the curriculum is definitely different in some area's I am wondering if their choice in programming languages is some how related to that. seems crazy that something like computing would be decided on a council by council level when as a country the curriculum is supposed to be standard.


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#19]
Just got an E-mail reply from my local MP.

He's taking the matter up with the education minister, and when he's got a reply will pass it along to me.

Who knows what will come of this, but at the very least I'v made them look at a subject that's clearly in need of attention.


Floyd(Posted 2013) [#20]
I had to look up Comal!


Me too. When I put the word "comal" into google I didn't see the programming language. It didn't show up until the middle of page five.


smilertoo(Posted 2013) [#21]
Scotland has no official curriculum, teachers are given a broad overview of what areas will be questioned in the exams and its up to them to cover each relevant area as they see fit. So a programming question might ask how an array works and why you would use one...so the language is pretty irrelevant at school level


Paul - Taiphoz(Posted 2013) [#22]
that's kinda **** up then, next time I talk to this MP I will be sure to ask about that, and if that's the case then I will be a bit selfish and try and get him to focus on my sons school or the area if that's the case and see if I can get it changed so they teach something that's relevant.