4/2     Is there an interpreted version of C or C++ that can be used for
        educational purposes? It doesn't have to be full-featured or
        strictly adhere to the standards, but it's painful for students
        to change a variable in a for loop and then wait for a compile
        to see how it changes the result. Something really lightweight
        would encourage them to play around a lot more and learn more in
        the process.
        \_ There are interpreted versions of C around.  I know of one at UC
           Davis, although I don't know the name and have never tried it.
        \_ Seriously, for this level of programing why are you using C?
           There's all sorts of better learning languages that aren't going
           to get bogged down in C land.
           \_ Because this is to teach students C/C++ in particular and not
              CS/logic. Same reason why not to use perl or python in this
              instance. Imagine that you want to teach high school students
              C/C++. I don't want to use a 'learning language' like
              Pascal, because the objective it to learn the fundamentals
              of the C/C++ language. Many already know Java anyway. We
              can use a real compiler when the projects get more complex,
              but at Ground Zero an interpreted version of C would be nice.
              \_ I would argue that the compiling process is a pretty
                 fundamental aspect of C/C++. So becoming comfortable with
                 that (teach them to use make at the same time?) is part
                 of learning the language. For simple programs compiling
                 should be really simple to do. An IDE is even simpler but
                 probably harder to see what is really going on (Visual
                 Studio feels like using MS Office or something instead of
                 seeing the individual steps.)
                 \_ We are using Visual Studio, but it is far too
                    cumbersome to start with. One compile of "Hello
                    world!" takes a few mins even on modern h/w. It would
                    be nice to be able to prototype simple programs
                    or 'play' outside of the compiler. It is a PITA to
                    recompile every time to do a simple change to see
                    what might happen and it restricts people from wanting
                    to experiment.
                    \_ Few mins for hello world? Something seems wrong.
                       At any rate a simple editor + gcc would definitely
                       be easy. Just edit hello.c, gcc hello.c, a.out.
                       Rinse, repeat. Well, good luck.
                       \_ Or "cl hello.c" if Visual Studio is in your path
                          environment variable.
                    \_ well this then, is your biggest problem. were you using
                       a linux host, gcc would compile simple C programs in a
                       fraction of a second.
                       Barring switching over to Linux, you could potentially
                       try using gcc under cygwin, also very fast. -ERic
                       \_ Can't switch to Linux as their lab runs WinXP.
                          \_ reread my whole comment, including the gem about
                             cygwin, which runs fine under winXP. -ERic
                             \_ I read it. I was just explaining why
                                Linux isn't an option. Thanks.
        \_ Why not use perl? If you have to use C, try cint from CERN:
           http://root.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ROOT/CINT
           \_ Please, not perl.  Python.  Ruby.  Hell Scheme.  Anything
              but perl.
           \_ cint looks interesting and I will play around with it.
           \- long ago, there was "Saber C" ... i dunno what is the current
              state of Sabre C/codecenter. Do these studnets know how to use
              gdb? I dont think the "problem" is recompiling, it is syntax
              and inspecting data structures. Why dont you use lisp. --psb