[Edu-sig] Suggestion for Python learning

[deepu john]

Hi,

A suggestion for python books with a touch of philosophy.

Wished authors could use analogies from spreadsheet applications (that
crunch data just like computers crunch data using programming languages ) or
opensource programs when explaining stuff like datastructures, variables,
functions, methods, Object orientation, GUI... It could acheive two things,
give an intro into how spreadsheets work for those who do not know
spreadsheets (probably good for kids to learn about spreadsheets) and will
help a python enthusiast/newbie visualize programming concepts like
functions, methods, datastructures, decorators, generators... It doesn't
make someone, especially kids or people with no programming background much
sense to learn from any programming language that a function foo can return
"bar" or foo.foobar() returns void.

When I stumbled into python, I was also learning 3D. One of the functions in
the program I was using was object instancing. ie make a sphere, create
instances of it, modify the source sphere and the changes are reflected on
the instances. I think newbies will find it easier to grasp keywords like
"instantiation" easier to understand if shown something like this in a
software application. I used such analogies to teach my nephew who in school
has to learn an object oriented programming language.

If OpenOffice and Blender (May be not blender cos not everyone wants to
learn 3D animation) are opensource programs we can use the concepts they use
to build such applications and explain them in a pythonic way rather than
newcomers learning the raw language using the analogies of "foobar" and then
trying to make sense of "foobar" in resolve programming problems in daily
life.

Good to see in python we have lots of beginner tutorials @
http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers . But was
wondering if some one who is new to programming have to go through each
tutorial explanation of a concept through different tutorials at different
locations? Wished a wiki-/pedia could aggregate explanations of each concept
in python in one location and python enthusiasts from different verses of
life could contribute their own explanations for the topic. So a topic on
functions could have it explained the python way, the foobar way, a
bioinformatics way or a weatherman's way.... all in one location.

<Philosoph-Y>
The spirit of Opensource is to share the knowledge for a common goal?
Sincerely admire the openSource community of a colony of Bacteria and for
that matter any openSource community. An experience by one is shared by the
rest of the colony so that future generations are smarter than their
parents. The experience is shared in a format easily understandable for the
rest of the colony. Given that fact, us in Medicine can never cure Cancer or
Infections because them cells are smarter than us. They share their
knowledge to kill us, We don't share our knowledge to kill them. We share
knowledge in only hierarchies designed by aggregating, segregating and
congregating individuals. And our knowledge formats take half of our life
time to learn the language.

Not sure what gets lost when we become independent multicellular individuals
that such individuals hesitate to share their knowledge with other
individuals of a colony (society, nation or species) !
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