Re: Programming first steps.
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 07:08 pm, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> Fact is, Python uses the concept of significant whitespace, which a lot
> of us simply don't like. That's a personal opinion, and in most cases
> probably not a rational thing, so providing arguments won't help. Can we
> cut this thread here, please? (yeah, I know I started it)
Heh heh, too late now. ;) I agree completely it should be a non-issue, but
the fact that it is brought up at all in the context of possibly discouraging
someone from trying one of the best learning languages out there means I'm
gonna reply to this anyway.
Actually I think the whole "significant whitespace" problem that some folk
(though never anyone who's actually used it) seem to have with python is
purely a tiresome misuse of terms. "Significant whitespace" implies all sorts
of things that scare off lots of folk, maybe with good reason. If one needs
to label something as unremarkable as python's particular method of defining
blocks (by indentation instead of extraneous brackets or "start, end" or any
other ugly waste of space and keystrokes) then "significant indentation"
might be more accurate.
As long as blocks are indented consistently, however you prefer (reads and
types great, tastes even better) they are blocks. It's quite sensible and
straightforward. Nothing else about whitespace matters a fig in python, and
even for indentation it's not the whitespace in itself that has any
significance it's the consistent grouping of statements in blocks: the syntax
could just as easily specify that this be done with any consistent number of
dots or dashes you preferred, but then that wouldn't read as well, which is
one of the main points... *shrug*
So, David, if you're still reading, I've used python to teach programming with
more success than any other language. It's a very consistent and sensible
language, and like many others here have pointed out the underlying concepts
of programming are transferable between languages, so IMHO you might as well
start off learning something enjoyable, simple, powerful, and maintainable.
There is very good and very comprehensive documentation available with python
including a tutorial, and plenty of other learning material linked to from
python.org. If you do think you'd like to try python and you like printed
books, "Learning Python" by Mark Lutz & David Ascher would be a good place to
start.
--
Stephen M. Gava <smig@users.sourceforge.net>
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