[Edu-sig] On the front page

[Kirby Urner]

>A great deal of debate in this forum, from Kirby's objections to PyGeo to
>your recent complaints about Alice, centers around where this line should be
>drawn.  Python already provides a rather high level of abstraction, with
>~100,000 lines of C code in between you and the (even larger) operating
>system.  A system like Alice, PyGeo, or my own Visual adds more abstraction.
>The average piece of commercial software adds even more.

I agree with this "moving line" analysis and think students 
would benefit from having this same understanding.

A well-rounded education would involve looking "under the hood"
at various levels -- move the line around, and get some 
insights about the different kinds of API.

Plus we should forget the "black box" is on both sides of 
the "cell-silicon interface" and we actually have less 
insight into why it works at all on "this side" of the 
interface.

Kirby