[Pythonmac-SIG] My stab at a new page

[Bill Janssen]

> > A good entry page tries to speak usefully to all of these communities
> > at the same time, without speaking down to any of them.
> 
> Do you really think that there is a large enough audience that would  
> be willing to read pages of documentation, but not be willing to  
> install anything?

No.  That's why the *first* page is so important.  That's why I put
the example of the terminal and "type 'python'" on there.

> I also think that if we give people the option to use Python without  
> installing anything, then they'll choose that option and be  
> disappointed because the experience with a newer version has a few  
> years more polish and bug fixes... and can simply get them farther  
> because it doesn't have any of the limitations that the pre-installed  
> one has.

Not for Python newbies.  They've never *seen* the more advanced
versions.  Python 2.3 all by itself is a pretty nifty programming
experience, to someone who's not a developer, but wants to write a
script or a simple program.  Experienced Python users will of course
probably want to install the newer version first.

> With a downloadable package that sorts out all the issues that need  
> to be documented, then we would be able to skirt the whole issue of  
> the UNIX crash course.  Download this package, double-click to  
> install, double-click to start IDLE (or whatever) here.

I agree.  If the 2.4.x installer were bundled with TigerPython24Fix
and some quick-start IDLE app into a single installer, that would be
great, and an improvement over the current situation.  (And could it
please *not* have the word "fix" in the title?)

By the way, Apple seems to believe that the educational environment is
important.  If someone wanted to write up a page called, "How to get
your Mac-using class started with Turtle graphics in 10 minutes", I
think that would be a positive contribution.

> Another thing to consider would be to do something similar to Movable  
> Python:
> http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/movpy/
> 
> In this case we would distribute Python as an application, and that  
> application when run by itself could have options to "make this  
> Python the default from Terminal" or something.

I like this idea, too.  Can we make it happen?  Any volunteers?

Bill