[Edu-sig] OLPC: first thoughts on the first keynote at Pycon

[kirby urner]

On 2/23/07, Paul D. Fernhout <pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:

> Anyway, there is no inherent reason Python can not do what Smalltalk does
> -- although it might require some minor changes to the VM to debug and
> restart exceptions; Python just does not do it, I suspect in part because
> key Pythoneers may just not understand what they are missing and think
> module reloading is the same thing. :-) I predict if Guido added this one
> set of related features to Python, it would be a very short time before
> everyone wondered how they lived without it before. :-)

You may be right, although if I understand your aright, it's neither
the syntax nor semantics of Python that are at issue, but the IDE and
its ability to permit debugging on the fly, using thrown exceptions as
restart points of some kind.  Sounds cool.  Don't have to wait for
Guido, might be able to retrofit it for earlier Pythons.

Kirby