Ideas for a project? (a MSc project, sort of)

[Remco Gerlich]

eloy <eloy at rabinf50.uco.es> wrote in comp.lang.python:
> 	I have entered the world of Python about two months ago. I really
> fell in love with the language inmediately (don't tell my girlfriend).
> 
> 	I teach at the University of Córdoba (Spain) and would like to
> guide one of my students in a project related to Python. In Spain, after
> three years (the equivalent of a MsC, I believe) our students must
> develop a project to obtain the diplomma. The estimated duration is
> around 4-6 months, sometimes part-time, sometimes full-time.
> 
> 	So, as I am new to the Python community, I would like to ask
> if there is any idea about projects that could fit that description. Of
> course the results would be available to everybody.

Would that be a programming project, or something more general?

A lot of Python features were decided by usability studies, a long time ago
(for the ABC language). For instance, using indentation for block structure,
and : after the command that starts the block, was the result of a usability
study on newbies. It might be interesting to do some tests with newbies (or
established Python programmers, or experts in other languages) on some
somewhat controversial aspects of the language. Case sensitivy, for one
thing (there have been studies with newbies). Readability of different
idioms. Maybe a survey of which types of bugs are most common with Python.

Another idea: there are fast compilers for Common Lisp, not for Python. Lisp
is at least as dynamic as Python. Why is this? Someone asked, and got the
answer that there were a lot of PhD students working on Lisp... It would be
interesting to have an overview of optimizations in CL compilers, and how
they could be applied to Python (or why they can't).

Just some random ideas :)

-- 
Remco Gerlich