Deposing Dictators

[Arthur Siegel]

Tim writes -

>I'm afraid it's too late <0.5 wink>.  In response to a msg where I urged
you
>repeatedly to read the darn PEP, and spelled out what a small role Alice
and
>VPython have played in all this (perhaps seminal, perhaps not, but a drop
in
>the bucket regardless), it's still the only thing you talk about.

I've read the darn Pep - all versions, and followed the discussions closely.

Guido, after misdirecting the discussion by implying he was going
to pass on the PEP due to the code breakage issue, announces he is sending
out a patch previewing the new division semantics to the desperately
needy VPython folks - PEP accepted. At the time, about all the PEP said was
that the division semantics of Python was a major stumbling block for
the newbie.  Guido responded to one of my own early posts by throwing
the VPython experience up as a proof of the significance of the issue.
Bruce Sherwood's report to him on the VPython's students experience
was quoted at length.

The obvious line here -

You can rewrite the PEP, but not the history.

The only significant information that has been revealed in this
exchange is again no particular surprise to me.  You linked a few
posts ago to a long Bruce Sherwood post to Python-Dev about the
significance of the div issue for his use of Python in his physics
class.  The post was *before* he had used it in the classroom.
He had pre-determined it as a problem - not experienced it
as a problem.  At a point where I believe it is accurate to
say that he himself had little actual experience with Python at
all.

Perhaps that might count a little against the significance of
his reports from the classroom.

But I'm not the scientist, of course.

ART