Paul D. Fernhout wrote: > >I quote it because it reminds me of your comments on list sometimes. :-) >And this is not to disagree with your points on using Python as-it-is for >education -- in the sense that you remain absolutely correct that Python >is a great system and people can learn a lot using it just the way it is >in the manner it was primarily intended (as something better than C or >shell scripting for those who already know C syntax and shell scripting). > I think that unnecessarily narrowly defines its intentions. I knew (and know) no C, and knew a little shell scripting only from the days before a GUI interface to the Net.
I have fought the "Python is Easy" meme relentlessly - thinking it sure to establish the conditions for failure for those approaching it with that expectation. Nonetheless I am world famous ;) for being an old dog having learned a substantial new trick - programming - via Python. I think there are reasons I have been successful with Python where I would not have been with Smalltalk or Squeak or this or that. Some of those reasons are probably peculiar to my own sensibilities, and some are not - they are in the design of the language. I like the word "naivety" in this context - knowing we are talking about a quite intentional naivety. It is related to "easy", but it is different from it. You seem in your discussion to be immune to any appreciation of this aspect of Python. But I think that anyone trained in the Kay constructivist school would tend to be For all the soothing talk about empowerment, there are the geniuses and the other. We - the geniuses - need a language designed to provoke the other It's taste on the palate is not the concern Here, it is different . So I see no great productive energy resulting from a collaboration. We talk about practicality over purity, not blue panes and pink planes. People *make their livings* doing Python. Without grant funding. I would never had been interested in it were it otherwise. Art _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
