Teaching python (programming) to children

[Andrew Dalke]

David Andreas Alderud:
>Python's biggest strength from my point of view is the fact that it is
>master tool for fast prototyping, but you can't really take full advantage
>of that feature in a project until you have a lot of experience with low
>level languages.

I don't know how to do generic programming in assembly or C, and
barely understand how to do it in C++, but it's trivial in Python.

Regarding Ada, I know Stepanov original worked on generics in Ada
but switch to C++ and templates as they fit better what he wanted
to do.  Don't know any more details though.  That was also pre-Ada95.

>The fact that Ada is the only language that truly was designed, people who
>have used Ada have no problem to pick up other langauges other than fully
>functional languages such as LISP.

Huh?  Part of the history of Python is that it was based off the
ideas learned in ABC, which was a language that not only was designed
but underwent modifications based on user testing of beginning
programmers.  So how is Ada "the only language"?

>I see big demand for Ada programmers here in Sweden, not as big as Java and
>C++, but indeed much more so than Python :)

One of my clients is on Göteborg, using Python.  I know several people
doing Python in Sweden.  I don't know anyone using Java in Sweden.
But then, I'm biased :)


>I must say I'm anti-GNU, i.e. anti-GPL/LGPL, but I found this which was an
>interesting quote from a GPL'ed project:
>"Using GtkAda and GNAT, we can decrease time to market by a factor of two
to
>four over any other language/compiler."
>-- http://libre.act-europe.fr/gvd/

Everyone says their language can decrease time to market by about that
much.  I've heard the same statements from Eiffel, Lisp, Smalltalk,
Java, OCaml, Perl, and yes, even Python developers.  Therefore, logic
dictates that it takes no time to get a product to market.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at dalkescientific.com