> I'm planning on doing more books at some point in the future after getting > feedback. > > Thank you! > Al Sweigart
Hello Al -- So now I've spent some more time with the book, and have to say like the colorful pictures (screen shots in some cases), an asset the Web so easily permits (almost cost free to get pixels splashed on screen, whereas printing so many colors in wood pulp was always prohibitive unless you were Time/Life or whatever). You could serialize in magazines, do columns, same format. I'd say your take on Python is what many novices will be wanting and expecting, especially if previously exposed to BASIC, in that you have line numbering and put executable statements top level, with functions like subprocedures, not even a main() usually -- not strictly C family aesthetics, nor the Pythonic idea of a modular grab-bag, no top-to-bottom scripting needed (math.py an example, string.py etc. -- tropical fish in aquarium model: just feed the functions directly, no raw_input required (in open source world, you get to see what's there, so not so reliant on hand-holding prompts as in the early days, when "the user" had to fly blind, the executable a mystery black box)). I'm impressed that you tackle Othello, don't stop at Tic-Tac-Toe! I'd say this is more a book about programming in general, in a particular style that cuts across languages (Pascal... FORTRAN). I say this because I don't see much focus on OO, a signature top-level in Python, from whence derives the logic of dot notation (type/class unification i.e. "low level data structures" and "user space creatures" both inheriting from the same archetype, share that __rib__ cage idea). And that's not a criticism, and in keeping with my own guidelines, favoring *sampling* Python but not committing too early, no time pressure on choosing "the one", books such as yours will be favorites for some kinds of kid. BASIC still has a future probably, given the success of recent versions (Logo too I think). I'd encourage you to keep exploring in that direction, as you clearly have a lot of experience behind you. There's a lot of lore to pass down (more than any one of us could ever manage to communicate). Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
