[Edu-sig] Future of CP4E after CNRI?

[Jeffrey Elkner]

Hello Dinu!

As a teacher who is both very committed to and very dependant on CP4E, I shared
your concerns as well.  After thinking about the implications of the new
situation, however, I am fully convinced that this is a very good thing in the
long term for CP4E (as a concept, if not an official project).

The single biggest concern I encountered when proposing the use of Python in my
first year programming course was: "yes, it might be an excellent language for
teaching programming, but who uses it in the real world?"

The more viable Python is as real world programming language, the more easily
it will be accepted in schools.  Making it a popular real world programming
language is the goal of BeOpen, so BeOpen's commercial interests coincide
perfectly with the long term goals of CP4E.

And making it a popular programming language is very import to the students who
will be using it to learn.  My students want to know that what they are learning
is not only interesting but practical as well.

jeff elkner
yorktown high school
arlington, va

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000, Dinu wrote:
> Maybe there are good reasons to believe that CP4E will have
> a bright future, now more than ever, and I'm just unable to 
> see them? Maybe there are good reasons to believe that Be-
> Open as a rather unknown new player has a real interest and
> concrete advantage in promoting Python and CP4E that are 
> simply not obvious to everybody?