[Edu-sig] Teaching Python instead of Java?

[Morris, Steve]

 > >'built on top of' procedural features (which are closer 
 > > to how the computer really works).  
 > 
 > Closer to most computers but not all. Symbolics 
 > workstations are optimised to work with Lisp and 
 > Dr David H???? built an OO based machine some time 
 > back for Linn Products which was all based on 
 > message passing at the hardware level. But I 
 > agree that most computers are stack based.
 
Ah yes Symbolics... It is best to speak politely of the dead but this we can
say: both of these machines implemented a complex abstraction in microcode.
The underlying machines that interpreted the microcode were procedural, i.e.
"how computers really work." Microcode is software and hides the underlying
architecture but it is still there. There is little conceptual difference
between a microcode interpreter and a Python interpreter. Neithor represent
the actual hardware layer, i.e. "how a computer really works." Microcode is
more correctly called firmware but so is PCs BIOS. There are/were non
procedural computers but these two computers are not in that list.