From: "Mauricio Fernández" <batsman.geo@...>
Date: 2002-12-08T07:59:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie tutorial - if statements

On Sun, Dec 08, 2002 at 07:30:56AM +0900, Chris Pine wrote:
> 
> 
> I say leave out the 'then'.  The less is on the page, the easier it is to
> understand.  Taken to the extreme of making it look like english, you could
> tell them if statements look like:
> 
>   if cond then#do#the#following
>     ...
>   else#do#something#else
>     ...
>   end
> 
> My vote is for keeping it simple.  if statements are already pretty englishy
> and intuitive.  And I would only show them the multi-line if statement,
> because with it they don't need the single-line version to do what they
> want.
> 
> Also, I would leave out 'unless'.  It's just another thing for them to
> remember.  A nuby never wants to hear:  "Well, you already know how to do X,
> but here are two more ways to do X."  If you're going to be teaching them
> something, have it always be something new.
> 
> After your tutorial, they can go read the pickaxe or something if they want
> to know a few more ways to do X.
> 
> That's my general outlook, anyway.

Moreover, if children see 'if ... then' as a natural mapping of English
to Ruby, they'll probably try other constructions and be disappointed
when they don't work: "Why it is like English in one case and so strange
in the other?" IMHO it's good to have them realize from the beginning
that Ruby is *not* a natural language, that you cannot express things
any way you like, and that there's some things that have to be learned
first. 

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