Deposing Dictators

[Arthur Siegel]

Working a little backwards -

Tim writes - 

>outta-this-ly y'rs  - tim

We're all looking forward to me joining you, I'm sure.

>What of it?  Nobody is claiming that the VPython folks don't want this
>change -- and reports based on experience instead of pure rhetoric have a
>certain charm due to their extreme rarity <0.9 wink>.

But that remark is to the heart of everything I have been trying
to express, and I cannot leave it unaddressed.

This is no debating game to me. I am not telling you about
languages I designed, and awards and grants and degrees.  
I am talking from hard won recent experience learning 
programming fundamentals via Python, having worked 
extensively with VPython and Numeric in the process.
 
My credentials:

http://home.netcom.com/~ajs/

That someone of middle-age, without significant prior
programming or math experience could get that much done,
is a tribute to Python and its tools - as they have stood.

There have been nibbles of interest in my work from
math pedagogues from outside the Python community.
As well there should be. It's interesting stuff.

So none of this is coming out of my hat.

We are in the Usenet realm.  My credentials are my
experience and sincerity alone. 

When a high school student studying Python gets the
nerve to post up that case sensitivity has not been an
issue to him or his classmates, what weight has it
carried vis-a-vie the Alice "studies".  I know well
the answer.  And am disappointed with it.

True, I have preceded naively. What other forces
are at play? Listen, I like PythonLabs, need to make
a living - and make many compromises in the process.
If there is more in play in some of these decisions than
language design, the good of all, etc. I could well
understand and accept.  But I can only go on 
what I am privileged to know.
  
ART