On Dec 21, 9:57 pm, Nathan Rice <nathan.alexander.r...@gmail.com> wrote: > +1 for IPython/%edit using the simplest editor that supports syntax > highlighting and line numbers. I have found that > Exploring/Prototyping in the interpreter has the highest ROI of > anything I teach people. > > Nathan
It seems to me that we are not distinguishing different 'scales'. For example: In principle one can use any unit to measure length. In practice it is inconvenient to use kilometers when microns or angstroms are more appropriate. Clearly there is a need, when learning a language, to explore the basics with a minimum of interference from the environment ie introspection features of python with as little extra interference as possible. As a teacher I generally demonstrate with python-mode in emacs. I guess IDLE, ipython etc should be equivalent. But then someone in the class comes with a 'question' of this sort: We have this project in eclipse+python. But the path is not being searched properly. etc Now for me eclipse is more of pizazz on the outside and nightmare on the inside. [Or maybe its just that I am particularly bad at solving these kinds of problems]. Nevertheless this scale or granularity of work is also important in python education and is sorely underrepresented. Here are some of my earlier attempts to canvass for this orientation: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-May/1271749.html http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2011-November/1283634.html -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
