[Edu-sig] Python as a first language for computer sciencist

[ajsiegel@optonline.net]

>.  The advantage of a case-
> insensitive     language is that when we are taught to read, we 
> are taught that, for
>     example, "f" and "F" are the same letter.  Eventually we 
> learn that.

I have had problems with that argument.  We learn that they are 
the same letter, *different cases*. And we learn that there is 
significance to different cases, and there is nothing new to 
learn, IMO, in learning that that may be so in the context 
of programming as well.

They *are* pronounced the same.

I happen to appreciate the visual clues that case-sensitivty provides.

Others find difficulty with the oral ambiguity.

My theory is that this is largely how this issue cuts, the visually 
inclined versus the orally inclined.

Someone loses.

Art