[They are not CS students] > Why is that relevant?
Because for many users, python is NOT a programming language; it is an application like any other. It happens to be very powerful and flexible, but the point isn't to program; it is to produce better reports. If the hurdle to get started (either initially, or after a while away) is too high, then it is not a useful tool. It is OK to have all sorts of power-user knobs, but the default instructions should just work ... they shouldn't have to say "ensure you have proper settings for these 6 things you don't care about or understand", because the default install should just choose reasonable default settings and take care of them. > there are some basic fundemental skills that every amateur or > professional programmer needs to know, such as: My point is that plenty of python users have no intention of being a programmer. > how to edit files and save them (fair ... but plenty of programs don't even *let* you do this with an external editor; there is no reason the _default_ should force people to pick and configure an external editor. IDLE tends to do OK here.) > which file am I actually running? > which interpreter am I actually running? > how do I tell the computer to use a different interpreter? If you need to care about any of these, then the environment is fighting you -- and the application probably stinks. Programmers have to deal with it because of bootstrapping, but there is no reason that we should assume all python users need that flexibility or want that responsibility. > Writing code to run on any platform is a hard problem that > requires complex solutions. Thus the preference for solving it once in the library/official documentation/reference installer. Experts can build on it or opt out, but non-programmers shouldn't have to worry about cross-platform issues just to use python. -jJ _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/FPPE35KUME5JDDRSZ44RXRDN366EJNAC/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
