[Tutor] 15 puzzle [language compatibility]

[Daniel Yoo]

On Sun, 13 May 2001 alan.gauld@bt.com wrote:

> > the "we" above won't include PythonLabs
> 
> I wouldn't expect it to, but I would plead for the tutor list 
> to accept users of older versions.

I agree; we certainly don't expect people to automatically adopt new words
when a new edition of an English dictionary arrives: human language is
alive and spoken.  Although people gradually adopt new words and idioms,
the process takes time, and I think the same approach should apply when
we're tutoring Python.

If people ask something that has multiple solutions, let's show how it's
done in Python 2.1, and then, if the 1.52 approach is reasonable, show how
to do it in that fashion.  If the "old" way of doing something is just
unreasonable and kludgy, perhaps it will be appropriate to warn people
away from it if they can.  But the main point is that we're here to serve
the community of Python learners, not Python itself.  Perhaps this is
heresy.  *grin*