pre-PEP: Print Without Intervening Space

[Marcin Ciura]

Bengt Richter wrote:
> BTW, what makes you think any self-respecting "scientist" wouldn't be insulted
> by the idea of your spoon-feeding them a dumbed-down programming equivalent of
> "See Spot run"?

Am I right thinking that your dream 3 R's curriculum starts with
"Stately, plump Buck Mulligan" and Pólya Enumeration Theorem?
Most of them have no previous programming experience, mind you.

> Of course, you may be a suffering victim of circumstances, I don't know.

They're not so bad: I deliver the lectures (1.5 h/week), and there are
also laboratory classes (1.5 h/week). During one semester, most of
Python topics are covered.

> Fortunately,
> Python is not that hard, and rapidly becomes fun unless the initial experience
> is structured against discovering the expressive power that is so enjoyable.

I wholeheartedly agree with you in this point. I'm sure my students
would appreciate being taught Python instead of Pascal if they had
a chance to compare them.

> If you want the effect of print x, y, fn(z), etc without spaces, why don't you
> just write a function that will let you spell it simply, like

Excellent advice, provided that you already know the concept
of user-defined functions.

> IMO teachers should lead their students into contact with reality,
> not insulate them from it with delusionary simplifications that
> they will have to unlearn in order to progress.

I'm not sure what you mean by "delusionary simplifications",
but I hope you meant nothing insulting. They already know how to
use string interpolation, and as soon as they learn how to mutate
the contents of a list, I'll tell them to use looped .append()
followed by .join() instead of looped string concatenation,
and explain why.

Best regards,
   Marcin