On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 03:33:06AM +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:
If that were to happen, what I'd prefer is to cut lots of info out of the *TUTORIAL* and make a new document called, say, *Python Advanced Techniques* or something, which could still have the narrative style but would be aimed at people who know how to use basic functionality and are looking to learn more.
I think that there is a lot of middle ground between "simple" stuff for beginners and "advanced techniques" for experts. Is it too much to expect beginners to skim over parts of the tutorial that are marked as "intermediate" or "expert" level? Personally I find it very helpful to "peek ahead" to get an idea of the material ahead, and see how the current material fits into the broader picture. What do we mean by "beginners"? Who is the tutorial aimed at? Eg: - self-taught 12 year olds passionate about learning to program - surly 15 year old students being forced to learn Python for school - scientists needing to learn to interact with scientific libraries, but with no interest in programming beyond the barest minimum they need to make the libraries work - sys admins with 20 years experience in other languages looking to get an introduction to Python so they can be productive etc. All of the above?
The name "tutorial" definitely screams "thing you should go through first".
Not to me. When I was at uni, the tutorial was the thing you went through *second*, after the main lectures, to reinforce what you had already learned from the lecturers and text book. When I tutor students professionally, I teach them new material, oh, maybe one time in twenty. The rest of the time we're covering material they have already learned.
It shouldn't have to teach you everything.
Then it's a good thing it doesn't attempt to :-) -- Steve