[Edu-sig] re: Python as a first-year programming language

[Arthur]

Toby writes - 

>One of the problems I have about acceptance of Python is that the choice
>of first-year programming language is likely to be a group decision, and
>Python, for all its merits, is either unknown, or has a reputation as
>being "just a scripting language", or just a new version of BASIC. Such
>innuendos unfortunately often carry the day in many academic
>departments, as nobody but the teachers of the programming class will
>have time to actually evaluate the different languages. Who says
>academia has no pointy-haired bosses? :-)

Seems to me that the fact that Peter Norwig chose to illustrate the algorythms of 


  Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach


      Second Edition

by *StuartRussell <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/%7Erussell>* and *PeterNorvig <http://www.norvig.com>*

in Python should say a lot to some of these folks.

http://www.norvig.com/python/python.html

Art

PS      Not to worry, I'm handling the errata ;)