Do any of you recommend Python as a first programming language?

[John Nagle]

Paul Rubin wrote:
> Jeff Schwab <jeff at schwabcenter.com> writes:
>> I've been learning a fair amount about functional programming
>> recently, mostly because compile-time C++ turns out to be a pure
>> functional programming language.  Where should I go for a solid
>> grounding in lambda-calculus?
> 
> For PL theory in general, try this:
> 
> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rwh/plbook/book.pdf

     What a mess.  That's some professor inventing his very own variation on
predicate calculus and writing a book using his own notation and terminology.
There's no sign of footnotes or references to prior work.  The notation
doesn't seem to do anything not previously possible; it's just different.

     Back when I was doing program verification work, we used to refer to
stuff like that as the "logic of the month club".

					John Nagle