Python and Schools

[Steve Holden]

"Andres Rosado" <arosado at softhome.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.1050499405.10336.python-list at python.org...
> On 05:06 AM 4/11/2003 -0400, python-list-request at python.org feed this fish
> to the sharks:
> >- if you learn programming with Python and later have to use Java or
> >Visual Basic, it will be the most frustrating experience for the young
> >fellows.
>
> Pardon my ignorance, but how could it be a frustating experience?
>

The frustration will arise from the non-availability of the various simple
features that Python provides to make programming easier.

For a real example, consider the contortions I have to go through when
writing VBScript ASP code for a client's project if I want a list (array) of
strings. Where in Python I can write:

    sarr = ['the', 'quick', 'brown', 'fox', 'jumps' 'over', 'the', 'lazy',
'dog]

in VBScript I must resort to one of [nontested code follows]:

    dim sarr(9)
    sarr(1) = 'the'
    sarr(2) = 'quick'
        ...
    sarr(8) = 'dog'

or possibly

    sarr = split("the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")

Now imagine the further complexity when each element of sarr needs to have
structure itself, remembering that VBScript has no data structure constructs
except the array (well, I understand there's now a third-party module that
lets you create collections or some similar object, but there's still no way
to create an object with attributes).

Hope this makes it clearer.

regards
--
Steve Holden                                  http://www.holdenweb.com/
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Python Web Programming                 http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/