[Python-Dev] re: syntax issues / LANL

Gordon McMillan gmcm@hypernet.com
Thu, 3 Feb 2000 13:33:13 -0500


Greg Wilson wrote:

> Given current discussions of ternary conditionals, namespaces, etc., would
> people like me to write up my notes on syntactic/semantic issues that came
> up during the courses I taught at Los Alamos National Laboratory?  I could
> send 'em directly to interested parties, or post to this list.

I would say by all means, post them. Please describe the 
prior experience of your students, though. I noticed that the 
HS teacher at IPC8 said that case-sensitivity was *not* a 
problem, and that his students were Linux users. Randy 
Pausch said it was a serious problem, but I think it's a safe 
guess most of his students had only Windows experience. So 
if your students were mostly Fortran programmers, that should 
help keep their needs in perspective, (it took me at least 2 
years to recover from the trauma of coding Fortran on punch 
cards).

- Gordon