[Edu-sig] If the PyPy Project gave you a implementation of Python in Python

[Terry Hancock]

On Saturday 13 September 2003 04:18 pm, Laura Creighton wrote:
> that was also a JIT runtime optimiser, and produced fast code, would
> you teach with it?

Yes.  If it performed better than the CPython version, but was otherwise
identical, I'd probably favor it for just about every use, including
teaching.

> One of the goals of the PyPy project is to produce something which 
> is even better suited than CPython for teaching computer science
> with.

Since I presume the goal of PyPy is to implement *Python* in Python,
wouldn't the implementation language be rather insignificant to an
end-user such as an educator?  Why would it be "better" than CPython?

I can see why it would be "just as good", and even why it might be
better on general principles (better ability to write low-level code,
better portability, etc), but it's hard to see why it's particularly good
for education for it to have these qualities (they would seem to have
more to do with good production code than good teaching code).

Mind you, Laura, I'm asking to start a conversation, not to
shoot the idea down.  I figure you probably *have* an answer,
I'd just like to hear it. :-)

Of course, I'm an American, so I may not count in the EU's
budget accounting, anyway. ;-)

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com