2009/10/28 Alf P. Steinbach <al...@start.no> > * Chris Rebert: > >> On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:52 PM, Alf P. Steinbach <al...@start.no> >> wrote: >> >>> [Cross-posted comp.programming and comp.lang.python] >>> >>> Hi. >>> >>> I may finally have found the perfect language for a practically oriented >>> introductory book on programming, namely Python. >>> >>> C++ was way too complex for the novice, JScript and C# suffered from too >>> fast-changing specifications and runtime environment, Java, well, nothing >>> particularly wrong but it's sort of too large and unwieldy and >>> inefficient. >>> >>> I don't know whether this will ever become an actual book. I hope so! >>> >>> But since I don't know much Python -- I'm *learning* Python as I write -- >>> I >>> know that there's a significant chance of communicating misconceptions, >>> non-idiomatic ways to do things, bad conventions, etc., in addition to of >>> course plain errors of fact and understanding in general, to which I'm >>> not >>> yet immune... >>> >>> So I would would be very happy for feedback. >>> >> <snip> >> >> http://preview.tinyurl.com/progintro >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> - Alf >>> >>> PS: Please use the groups, this thread, for feedback; not e-mail. -DS >>> >> >> - The slogan is "batteries included", not "all batteries included". >> - As a user of the platform, I can tell you it's "Mac OS X" (with a >> space, not a slash). >> > > Thanks! > > I'll fix that right away. :-) > > > > - ActivePython is a distribution, not an implementation. It's just the >> standard CPython from python.org with some bundled extras. >> > > Thanks, but it's also a language implementation, the way I use that word > :-). This is the same as the MinGW g++ C++ compiler is a language > implementation, in spite of being just a packaging of the CygWin compiler. > Its origin doesn't matter. But perhaps there is some better term than > implementation, something not involving discussing distributions and > derivative works and so on? I.e. a term that can be introduced in one line > of text and is even more clear?
Distribution? > > > > - I might consider making the first example multiline. Most cringe at >> the use of semicolons in a Python program, although I can understand >> it might be easier for the newbie to type correctly. >> > > Hm. I didn't know that about "most cringe at" semicolons in Python. But I > still think the example is better on one line: short, concise, not > introducing extra tool usage (which is what the reader absolutely *has* to > relate to). > > > > - You might mention how unit testing is used in interpreted languages >> to detect many sorts of errors detected by the compiler in compiled >> languages >> > > Yes, later. Unit-testing is done also for statically type checked > languages. The big difference lies in how much testing and at what time; > this involves in particular test-driven development (TDD). And it's touchy. > Proponents of this and that methodology will invariably argue that their > methodology is best... :-) > > > > Cheers, & thanks, > > - Alf > > PS: I added back in [comp.programming], since I think it's simplest to have > all the discussion, both Python-specific and general, in one single thread. > > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- twitter.com/olofb olofb.wordpress.com olofb.wordpress.com/tag/english
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