Beginner needs advice

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/30/2011 8:32 PM, harrismh777 wrote:

>
> However, I guarantee that if I'm dumped unaided in Piccadilly I'll be
> able to hail a cab, pay my £12.00 and get myself to Liverpool Street
> Station, find the bathroom, and be on the correct train just in time for
> dinner, all without looking into the English dictionary.

Because natural language is redundant and most speakers are forgiving, 
while computer language are stripped on much redundancy and their 
interpreters tend to be unforgiving, so a single missing comma or space 
can raise a SyntaxError. Python is designed to do so, and allow/require 
correction, rather than guess and go on.

This is not so bad; what if the cabbie does not understand you but say 
OK, guesses the destination, ignores any protestations, and asks for £30 
at the wrong destination. Following people who deafly say OK and take 
you whereever is a real hazard in some countries. Some tourist guides 
even warn about the practice.

Anyway, 'L i v e r p o o l   S t r e e t   S t a t i o n' is such a 
trivial utterance as to not be comparable to anything as complicated as 
a typical 5-line function.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy