My CTO is learning Python....

[laotseu]

Bjorn Pettersen wrote:
> ....time to run screeming from the building <wink>. His problem, is that
> "There doesn't seem to be any good books on Python". Pressed a little
> more, it was refined to "either the documentation assumes you've never
> programmed before, and spends volumes of text introducing loop
> constructs etc." (that was the commentary on the Tutorial <sigh>), "or,
> the author seems to be in love with the language purely for its advanced
> and obscure features" (he'd hoped 'Thinking in Python' would be like the
> C++/Java equivalent...). Pressed a little bit further, he commented:
> "what I'm really looking for is a quick introduction for someone that
> allready knows C++ or Java".
> 
> So on the positive side, our CTO is voluntarily learning Python -- on
> the other hand, every time I show him the pydiomatic way of doing
> something, his eyes get really big and he comments "you can do that? Why
> isn't that in the documentation?" Followed by me pointing out where in
> the docs it is, followed by "well, that's not very obvious..."

(snip)

> What I've been looking for, and not found, is examples of how dynamic
> typing and interface polymorphism make your code shorter, simpler, and
> easier. 

I think this is the whole point : this guy has static typing habits and 
so he does thinks that way... Not being a C++ expert (thanks God, if He 
exists !-), it took me some time to realize the benefits of dynamic 
typing and how to use it. In fact, I had to start learning a bit of Lisp 
and Smalltalk to start thinking pythonic... I agree that some strength 
of Python may not be obvious for static-languages-folks reading the doc.

but-i'm-not-sure-this-will-help-you !-)

Laotseu