Booleans, integer division, backwards compatibility; where is Python going?
Alex Martelli
aleax at aleax.it
Tue Apr 9 10:20:44 EDT 2002
Paul Boddie wrote:
...
> sentiments.) However, I do feel that the more recent features seem
> increasingly remote to the beginner and even the more
This can only come from a very selective view of "recent features".
Nothing is more natural to a beginner than "if x in somedict:" and
"for x in thefile:" -- having had the opportunity to teach some
beginners with 2.2, I've seen them slurp these up instantly (just
try to contrast with "if somedict.has_key(x):" and
"for x in thefile.xreadlines():" ...!). And the new features are
the right way to implement such obvious progress -- iterators, for
example, let you loop on (e.g.) dictionaries or files, without
requiring such types to define unnatural (or unfeasible) "indexing"
then go out of their way to stop misuse.
> advanced/experienced Python developer.
You MUST be joking -- inheriting from builtin types is SUCH a win,
and so obviously so, for advanced and experienced developers!
> List comprehensions (introduced
> in 2.0) do appear in the standard tutorial, but I can't easily find
> generators, even though they are documented in the language reference.
Generators need a "from __future__ import", so I applaud the tutorial's
choice not to burden beginners with them YET.
> other things to do during working hours) it becomes increasingly hard
> to keep track of what's great in the more recent Python releases.
I think AMK's "what's new" articles are great for that purpose.
Alex
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