Lesson plan
FLOW (programming language)
FLOW is an educational programming language designed by Jef Raskin in 1970 and implemented on several minicomputers in the early 1970s. The goal of the language is to make it easy to explore algorithms through a highly interactive environment. The overall language is very similar in syntax and structure to the BASIC programming language, but has a number of changes in order to make typing code easier. Most notable among these was the concept of "typing amplification", in which short strings, often a single character, were expanded by the language into the complete "unamplified" source code. Modern integrated development environments and code-oriented text editors often include a similar feature, now normally referred to as autocomplete. The beginning programmer would first create a flow chart to solve the problem. Since all of the problems involved words (rather than mathematical problems) the solution was intuitive. The flow chart would be translated into the flow programming language using a top-down, mechanical method.
Article summary
FLOW is an educational programming language designed by Jef Raskin in 1970 and implemented on several minicomputers in the early 1970s. The goal of the language is to make it easy to explore algorithms through a highly interactive environment. The overall language is very similar in syntax and structure to the BASIC programming language, but has a number of changes in order to make typing code easier. Most notable among these was the concept of "typing amplification", in which short strings, often a single character, were expanded by the language into the complete "unamplified" source code. Modern integrated development environments and code-oriented text editors often include a similar feature, now normally referred to as autocomplete. The beginning programmer would first create a flow chart to solve the problem. Since all of the problems involved words (rather than mathematical problems) the solution was intuitive. The flow chart would be translated into the flow programming language using a top-down, mechanical method.
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.