On Jun 2, 12:31 pm, Steve Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Mark Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Well, I know I'm preaching to the converted - but > > Python rocks. > > [...] > > A few questions from the choir: > > As a recent newcomer to the language, did you > encounter any traps or pitfalls while you were > learning?
I had probably stumbled on many/most of the common pitfalls usually mentioned (e.g. http://www.ferg.org/projects/python_gotchas.html, http://zephyrfalcon.org/labs/python_pitfalls.html) while learning, but picked them up easily after the first or second time. Off the top of my head, two errors that keep coming back even years after are: - Comparing instances of (semantically) incomparable types (http:// www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-python-elegance-1.html). Thankfully this will be fixed in Py3k. - Strings being iterable; unfortunately this will stay in Py3K. > Also, could you single out anything in > particular about Python that started making you more > productive, or was it just the overall design? If I were to pick a single feature, this would be the triplet iterators-generators-itertools, not only for the productivity gains but perhaps even more for changing the way of thinking about programming, making Python worth learning [1]. But in general it's the overall design, making the right tradeoffs in most cases. George [1] "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing." - Alan Perlis -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
