> I wish the debate would turn to actual use cases. For > example, one of the arguments behind PEP 3131 is that > it will facilitate the use of Python in educational > environments. It would be interesting to hear from > actual teachers what their biggest impediments to > using Python are right now. It could be that the lack > of foreign language documentation is far bigger an > impediment to using Python in a Chinese classroom than > the current restrictions on ASCII identifiers.
I don't know whether you have seen http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/msg/ccffec1abd4dd24d which discusses these points precisely. See also a few follow-up messages in that part of the thread. FWIW, I don't think that foreign-language documentation is lacking. I don't know about Chinese, but for German, there is plenty of documentation. I wrote a German Python book myself 10 years ago, and other people have since written other books. A PowerPoint presentation discussing Python for school can be found at http://ada.rg16.asn-wien.ac.at/~python/Py4KidsFolien1.ppt Gregor Lingl is the author of "Python für Kids". > It > could be that the standard library involves knowing > too much English, which PEP 3131 won't really address. > It could be that teachers simply want error messages > to be internationalized, so that students can follow > tracebacks, and identifiers aren't really an issue. > It could be that some foreign schools actually embrace > the use of an English alphabet in Python, as it allows > for a more integrated education opportunity (students > learn an important programming language while > simultaneously mastering one of the world's most > commercially important written languages...). Unfortunately, teachers don't participate in python-3000, as don't many other Python users. So it's unlikely that you find a teacher posting *here*, it was pure luck that I found a Chinese teacher posting on comp.lang.python. You would need to go to places where teachers discuss in the internet, which likely isn't even Usenet. Not being a (high school) teacher myself, I don't know how to find them. Regards, Martin _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
