westfw:
(Heh. LISP and FORTH have fine interactive interpreters as well, but I'm not going to recommend them either. Python does pretty well as an interactive interpreter:>>> x=3.14159 >> print x
3.14159
i = int(x)
print i
3
for i in [x/6, x/4, x/3, x/2, x]:
... print sin(i)
...
0.499999616987
0.707106312094
0.866024961519
0.999999999999
2.65358979335e-06
)
My first Basic let me use bits in integer vars. I consider learning bits early to be important foundation knowledge.
Is Python deficient in that department?
I think the real beauty of Basic for Beginners is that they can get utterly sick of it before too long and move on to better. If you start on a hilltop that's going to be harder to do.