[Edu-sig] The fate of raw_input() in Python 3000

[kirby urner]

On 9/8/06, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:

> You're not making a monkey out of your mom, by making her loop through
> some little menu, oblivious of the language underneath, its logic and
> design.  You're "protecting you mother" (aka paradigm end user) from
> knowing *anything* about Python.  That's your goal, that's the whole
> point (i.e. end user = not a programmer).
>

Just to clarify:  I think it *is* condescending to newbies to force
them through a lot of raw_input scripts, since this is:

(a) not state of the art from and end user's point of view nor is it (not GUI)

(b) not state of the art "coding for self" idiom (which'd be more
shell interactive)

As teachers, we shouldn't be propagating the hidden assumptions that
go with raw_input, i.e. that there's this class if people out there
"too dumb" to know anything about namespaces or functions.

I'm saying this'll all be common knowledge soon.

We'll know about 'strings' just as surely as we know about 'numbers'.

Why?  Because "computer literacy" is not just for some tiny inner
circle.  It's just basic fluency.  Like my friend Gene Fowler puts it
(paraphrasing):  any poet worth his or her salt should know about XML
already. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2006/08/more-cast.html

Kirby