[python-advocacy] easy as py

[Carl Karsten]

story time:  db developer friend asked me what I was doing, told him "Python, it 
is great.  Here are some url's of what I am doing: this, that and 
http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/CalendarRunThough "  he replied 'Interesting. 
  Wish I had more time to explore further.  Feel free to keep me posted with 
what you're doing... "

deep thought time: "Wish I had more time to explore further."  =  "I don't think 
I have enough time to actually get something useful out of it"  or some sort of 
perceived Return On Investment (RoI).   I am pretty sure I had that feeling too, 
and now have a feeling I was very wrong.

One thing that I think would help people 'ease into Python' is the fact that 
python without the batteries (modules) is only like 25 commands and functions. 
and 1/2 of those aren't even needed 'at first.'  I'm guessing you can hit the 
RoI level most people want by looking over about 10 python keywords and some 
list/dict notation.  you don't even need to execute it, just see it, read it, 
understand it.

I am thinking we need about 10 - 20 little snippits like this:

 >>> for x in [1,7,'abc',4]: print x,
1 7 abc 4

The above has some important features I find subtle, like the fact that to 
traverse a list, you don't need to A) determine the length, B) use that length 
as the upper limit of a for loop, C) use the loop counter as an index into the 
list.  granted other languages have FOR EACH which is similar, python seems to 
... um... use lists more intelligently?   (hmm... I have a concept in my head, 
but I am having trouble putting it to words.  may not be important, cuz readers 
of this list probably know what I am talking about.)  Python makes very 
efficient use of a small command set.

So I would like to collect a "one page" set of snippits.  guessing a wiki page 
would be good for this.

Would this be appropriate place/name?

http://wiki.python.org/moin/EasyAsPy

Carl K