Kevin writes:

They of course will remember this when an error occurs, but that could happen be in a production environment.

Kirby writes:

However, I'm adding that I think the limitations of the current / are more likely to trip up a pro than a dedicated, serious-minded newbie

And as boring as it might be, I essentially agree with the major points of both your posts. (Except that I am probably less sympathetic to the issues of someone who can't keep in mind that using a programming language is different than using a calculator) I recall for some reason in this context when I encountered a previously unreported JPython bug. It was a major victory for me to be able to eliminate all other possibilities and send up a bug report. The point of the story - if there is one - is that a few hours later someone (who had nothing to do with writing the original piece of code) comes back with the fix. Somewhere in the thousands of lines of Java code a ">" had to be a ">=". Issue gone. I looked at the offending code and the fix and didn't have a clue what was going on. But was awed that someone was able find it. And a little scared silly by a closer exposure to the rigor of the discipline. Though I hope this is not interpreted as lobbying for rigor for rigor's sake in a learning environment. I certainly understand that many of the more rigorous aspects of programming are hidden from me in Python's C code, and wouldn't have in at any way. But like all processes, there is a point of diminishing returns, and even a point perhaps where the process feeds back over itself. Whatever that might mean. ART PS - I thought I sent this note up last night. Don't see it posted. If duplicative, I apologize.