[Edu-sig] re: Types and true division (was Re: strange output)

[Guido van Rossum]

> Certainly I had nor have no reason to believe that Guido, in the
> weighing of pros and cons, took at all seriously the possiblity that
> the div operator change might be *harmful* to folks looking to
> Python as an introduction to programming.

If we take this argument seriously, perhaps Python would become a
better language if we crippled it some more.  Let's limit the maximum
size of lists to 32767, and the maximum size of dicts to 32768.  Let's
make multiplication undefined when the result is larger than 2**33.
Let's truncate all identifiers to 6 characters.  Let's make keywords
(but not identifiers) case-insensitive.  Let the program die with a
core dump upon division by zero.

Seriously, Art, it sounds like you struggled with a problem and are
proud that you overcame it, and now you want others to have the same
experience.

I'll tell you what.  The school of hard knocks sucks.  There are
plenty of *interesting* problems in programming to break your head on,
there's no need to surrect artificial barriers.  Save some brain cells
to think about an efficient sorting algorithm or a generational
garbage collector (never mind that Python comes with these built-in as
well).

> Despite the fact that someone who had been through the experience
> was trying to say he thought it would - me.  I can tell you that
> Bruce Sherwood *still* understands little about Python.  And Randy
> Pausch's true interest in Python and education is well indicated, in
> my mind, but the level of his participation on this list.

Bullshit.

> And with that, hopefully I will find myself able to go silent on the
> issue of "/".

I dare you.

> Copy of course being a whole other story.

"I came here for an argument."

"Oh, I'm sorry, this is abuse."

'Nuff said.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)