[Edu-sig] creating an interface vs. using one (Michel Paul)

[Arthur]

kirby urner wrote:

> What I don't get is this mystical fascination some people have with
> the Standard Library.  It becomes some kind of Quest to get one's
> little module blessed by Guido and inducted into this particular
> python.org motherlode (have some pity on 56Kers will ya?).
>
Not totally unsympathetic to that point of view.

But perhaps - could it happen? - you are selling me short.

Can we allow that we are in some sense at battle, and strategy is a OK. 
i.e. for anyone who thinks that Python's role is potentailly much more 
significant than  as suburb of Squeakland.

But that - things going as they are - it is likely to be overlooked more 
than it should be.

In both our battles - yours against the TI calculator, and mine against 
the 3d Ninja Turtles - VPython-like functionality is essential. It 
demostrates to your Problems that we are working with something with 
out-of-the-box more power than what they are committed to, and 
demostrates to my Problems that, being committed to working with and 
teaching about abstraction, we are progressive in the tools we use to do 
so - could be doing EA huminoid avatars and anthromorphic turtles if we 
chose but choose not, because they are distractions in addressing, 
teaching and exploring the world of abstraction.

Making both those statements by the inclusion of vpython-like 
functionality in the standard distribution is to me a business decision, 
and a good one.

Art