Python training time (was)

[Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy)]

> From: Michele Simionato [mailto:mis6 at pitt.edu]
> 
> Being honest, I would say that one cannot *never* claim having
> mastered
> *every* aspect of Python (or any other serious programming language). 
> I think that Guido himself would not claim he masters *every* aspect
> of Python.

Indeed. I believe he has a fit every time he even vaguely considers looking at Tim Peters' list.sort() code <0.5 wink>.

> I would say the time needed to have a working knowledge of Python is
> is *much* smaller than the corresponding time for C++. Much, much
> smaller.
> How much smaller depends on the person and on the job you have to do,
> but I think a *very* conservative estimate is at least half the time.
> Also, I would not be surprised to hear somebody claiming he can learn
> Python
> five-six times faster than C++.

Easily 5-6 times faster to learn Python than C++ ... but OTOH I knew a lot more programming languages when I learned Python than when I learned C++. I was productive with Python inside of a week. I was writing Pythonic code (which is more important - I had learned the most important idioms) inside of 3 months.

However, having learned C++ over 10 years ago, I claim to *not* know large parts of it at all well (or even at all). OTOH, I feel that I am comfortable with every aspect of Python that I have looked at, and that's the entire core language and a very large part of the standard library.

Tim Delaney