Feedback wanted on programming introduction (Python in Windows)

[Alf P. Steinbach]

* bartc:
> 
> python.org seems to be the main site. Google "python download" and that 
> is the first hit.
> 
> Their windows download seems to be 13MB against the 32MB of activestate, 
> and the IDE provided seems more advanced that the 'console window' you 
> have in your tutorial. I'm just asking why your chose one over the other...

I've changed that choice, so it's not something very important, but an 
ActiveState installation of some language generally Just Works, while other 
installations of non-Windows-specific programming stuff generally doesn't, 
requiring manual fixups.

For example, the mainstream Python 2.6 distribution failed to install when asked 
to pre-compile (advanced option).

Regarding the "IDE" I'm not sure what you're referring to because there's no 
such thing AFAICS. There's IDLE, which is referred to as an IDE but is (1) also 
present in the ActiveState distribution and is (2) not really an IDE in any but 
perhaps a formal sense. It's just a primitive editor with a primitive debugger 
that, in Windows, has an annoying bug regarding highlighting of code.


[snippety]

Cheers & hth.,

- Alf