[Edu-sig] Accessibility to non CS types?

[Paul D. Fernhout]

kirby urner wrote:
> Now they open a tutorial or book on such as Python, and immediately
> feel lost.  There's a lot of new jargon, and not many references to
> languages they already know.  Where is "Python for Pascal
> programmers"?

As in my longer email previous, I think part of the answer is in better 
tools and libraries, and that is why HyperCard, VB, or Delphi became 
popular. While TK is nice, not having a good generally purpose default GUI 
development system with the power of, say, Hypercard that everyone points 
to as a no-brainer for any beginner to use is a weakness from a beginner 
standpoint IMHO.

I think Self leads the way here in generality with one inspector that can 
be used to build GUIs, programs, or just sets of objects. And here is an 
attempt to bring that ease of use to Python, building on ideas from Self 
(and Squeak): :-)
http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/patapata/trunk/PataPata/PataPata.py?view=log
Doesn't succeed yet perhaps in making that beginner friendly, but a start.
(PythonCard is much better choice for current work though.)

--Paul Fernhout