[Python-Dev] Informal educator feedback on PEP 572 (was Re: 2018 Python Language Summit coverage, last part)

[Chris Angelico]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 3:02 AM, Michael Selik <mike at selik.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 8:09 AM Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you.  Personally, I'd like to see feedback from
>> educators/teachers after they take the time to read the PEP and take
>> some time to think about its consequences.
>
>
> I've started testing the proposed syntax when I teach. I don't have a large
> sample yet, but most students either dislike it or don't appreciate the
> benefits. They state a clear preference for shorter, simpler lines at the
> consequence of more lines of code.

This is partly because students, lacking the experience to instantly
recognize larger constructs, prefer a more concrete approach to
coding. "Good code" is code where the concrete behaviour is more
easily understood. As a programmer gains experience, s/he learns to
grok more complex expressions, and is then better able to make use of
the more expressive constructs such as list comprehensions.

ChrisA