Myth: Python is ideal for beginners

[Arthur]

>From the recent interview at

http://www.artima.com/intv/pyscale.html

"""

Bill Venners: What were your original design goals for Python? I had always
imagined you wanted to create an easy-to-learn language. You wanted to
maximize developer productivity by creating an easy-to-read, easy-to-write
language. But from your description of Python's history (see Part I), it
sounds like you were trying to fix things that frustrated you in ABC, a
lnguage that was designed to make it easy for intelligent non-rogrammers
tolearn.

Guido van Rossum: Actually, my initial goal for Python was to serve as a
second language for people who were C or C++ programmers, but who had work
where writing a C program was just not effective.

"""

So there may be something to pedro's intuition here.

And I have noted a certain schizoid character around Python in regard to
this subject.

Nonetheless I happen to be someone who learned Python as a first language -
though I had done some tinkering before I got to it. Having no ambitions to
be a professional programmer, but having some specifc areas of interest that
I wanted to explore - I found I was exploring those interests very soon out
of the box with Python.  I would probably still be trying to figure out the
basics of windowing in Windows & C++.  While in fact in the mean time I have
effectively conquered the world in Python.  Well maybe not exactly conquered
the world.

But I certainly felt Python let me get to the point quickly, and for those
with some specific points they wish to get to, I do believe it serves well
as a good starting (and ending point). Which is the educational role I see
for Python, getting folks to the point quickily - to the extent programming
can be helpful in doing that - in some area of interest. And that area of
interest might be far flung from anything focused specifically on computer
science.

I am - and others are - in the enviable position of not particularly needing
to be well rounded in this domain.


Art