On 3/27/14 11:48 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 3:37 AM, Mark H Harris <harrismh...@gmail.com> wrote:
For the purposes of this list, a "normal" user is a reasonably intelligent
college educated non "computer professional" non "computer scientist" non
"expert" who for the moment has an interest in leveraging computer science
and|or programming to solve everyday or other scientific problems (without)
having to first become a computer professional, computer scientist, or
expert.
Now you have to justify: Why is this person considered normal?
Do not think "normal" vs. "abnormal". That would be missing the mark.
"Normal" are the folks that fall (more or less) within two standard
deviations from the mean on a normal distribution of reasonably
intelligent, college educated scientists, and other problem solvers, who
have not been trained in the liberal art of programming (software
engineering) and who have an aptitude for problem solving but for
whatever reason (including time and interest) have not been inclined so
far towards the practical art of coding within the giant sphere of
computer science. Of course you eliminate from the set out-lyres and
almost all +|- outside two standard deviations of the mean (maybe a
little more).
The set includes most human beings on the planet. These are non computer
language experts, non computer scientists generally, non data processing
professionals, &c. These folks called "normal" are comprised of
everyone else who is smart enough to use a computer but does not have
eons to be initiated in the fine nuances of language design nor software
engineering. They just want to push their problem in, and get their
result out--- relatively quickly, with minimal hassle.
Jeane, on the list this week, is an example of this kind of person.
Yes, its possible. Dartmouth proved it (graduate students before
computer science was invented) in 1963-1964. Gates proved it again with
his BASICA, visual BASIC, and GWBASIC. There has been a resurgence of
interest in this area on tablets with Mintoris BASIC. On the PC and MAC
with Chipmunk BASIC... and others.
I am going to give this a shot with python. I honestly believe that the
python language can be leveraged in a minimal way (without being
minimalist) and at the same time in a sophisticated nuanced way (without
harming the flexibility of the language) for expert users and developers.
Some people equate developer with programmer with software engineer.
This ought not be done, in my view. There are *many* programmers out
there who suck at software engineering (and they are not computer
scientists). They also do not qualify as developers.
But they are problem solvers, and they can leverage the power of python
in a minimal way to solve their problems (fast, efficient) in a modern
sense. We have the web now. We use databases now. Problem solvers need
sockets now (server side, client side) that are *easy*. Mathematica is
too complicated. Matlab the same. My idea is to unify, simplify and give
access to the underlying language essentials system and interpreter
(like they did in 1964) to make things easier to pick up and go.
-------
When I started at this gig someone pointed to the O'Reilly book (about
1590) pages) and python.org. Give me a break!
No. We need a quick starter subset, a tiny book, and even tinier
tutorial, that gets people ("normal" ones) a fast boot to productive
work, yes, with pointers into more extensive reading and experimenting.
One day, they will be at least general-users, if not super-users or
experts. They may never be python developers and that's ok.
Philosophy by me
marcus
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