I meant "omitted" not as complete omission but as not being there sooner...
John Coleman wrote: > A is not ommitted from DBECAFG - it just appears in a non-standard > order. If the book simply ommitted functions then it would be a > shocking ommission. As it is, it is just a curious way of sequencing > topics. Functions are in chapter 11 out of 23 chapters - sounds like > the "core" of the book to me. > > Chun does emphasize the first-class status of functions in Python - > something which is fairly important to me since I have dabbled on and > off with functional programming the last few years (mostly SML) and am > interested in seeing the extend to which Python is genuinely > "multi-paradigm" - able to blend the functional and imperative (and OO) > paradigms together. > > -John Coleman > > Nick Vatamaniuc wrote: > > I would consider that an omission. Functions are very important in > > Python. I think the user/reader should see the _def_ and _class_ > > statement fairly soon in the introduction. The name of the book is > > thus somewhat misleading, because functions are at the "core" of > > Python. > > > > Functions should be right there with the integers, strings, files, > > lists and dictionaries. Another important point to stress, in my > > opinion, is that functions are first-class objects. In other words > > functions can be passes around just like strings and numbers! > > > > -Nick Vatamaniuc > > > > > > John Coleman wrote: > > > Greetings, > > > My copy of the second edition of Chun's "Core Python Programming" > > > just arrived from Amazon on Friday. What really jumped out at me is an > > > interesting feature about how it sequences its topics, namely, > > > (user-defined) functions are not introduced until chapter 11, fully 400 > > > pages into the book. This contrasts strongly with a traditional > > > "Introduction to language X" book which has a chapter sequence roughy > > > like: > > > > > > Chapter 1) Intro - Hello World > > > Chapter 2) Variables > > > Chapter 3) If, if-else > > > Chapter 4) Loops > > > Chapter 5) Functions and/or subroutines > > > > > > The exact details vary from book to book and language to language of > > > course, but usually the above topics are covered in the first 100-150 > > > pages since it is hard to do anything interesting until all of these > > > tools are under your belt. Chun's book by contrast is able, on the > > > strength of Python's built-in functions, to cover a fair amount of > > > relatively interesting things (dictionaries, file IO, exception > > > handling, etc.) before introducing user-defined functions. > > > > > > I don't want to read too much into this, but the mere fact that it is > > > possible to write a Python book in this fashion seems to confirm the > > > "batteries are included" philosophy of Python. Perhaps there is less > > > need to learn how to roll your own batteries as soon as possible. > > > > > > -John Coleman -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
