On Feb 10, 2006, at 5:34 PM, Bill Janssen wrote: >> Charles Hartman wrote: >>> It seems to me (as *much* closer to a newbie than a developer) that >>> simply recommending the download & install of Python 2.4.x not only >>> wouldn't put a major obstacle in the way of beginners, but wouldn't >>> seem to, either. >> >> Exactly. It's not like anyone but Linux users expects everything >> to be >> pre-installed on their machine! You have to download something to try >> out RealBasic, or whatever, as well. >> >> -Chris > > I don't know about that. The Mac philosophy is something like, "It > just works". I hear that a lot from new Mac users around here.
The audience we're imagining is one looking to branch out a little -- into programming, to begin with, into Python in particular. If that involves downloading something, that's perfectly familiar territory. If I were a Mac user interested in a new approach to word processing I'd expect to download Nisus Writer, or whatever. (For that matter, Word doesn't come free on Macs.) I think the Python is parallel, from that psychological standpoint. (The fact that Apple ships a version of Python is a red herring here.) Charles _______________________________________________ Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
