>>I just finished the "Rise and Resurection of the American Programmer"
>>and in it Ed Yourdon asks a very good question: If you child wanted to get into computers now what language would you suggest?
>>
>>Would it be FoxPro?
>
>I hate to say it, but probably BASIC. That's what I learned with. I disagree with the HTML, DHTML suggestions, they aren't really programming languages, but one is a simple markup language, and DHTML is merely an object model. To learn programming, you need to learn data types, constructs, loops, procedures, reuse, etc. I don't think you would learn any of that with HTML.
>
>Off the subject, but having read both the Decline and fall of the American Programmer, and Rise and Resurrection, I found them to be both garbage and Ed Yourdon a sensationalist. Reading his more recent insights into Y2K further support my opinion that his "insight" is no better than my dog's. I don't trust anything he writes because I question his motives ($$$).

I do disagree with many of the things Yourdon said in the book. He did spend a whole chapter on Java which few people mentioned here.