Python for VB6 programmers (was Re: Complexity of standard Python data structures)

[Alex Martelli]

Steve Holden wrote:
   ...
> You'd do better to call it "Python for VB programmers", expecially since
> the change to VB6 is so radical that migrating to a new and more sensible
> language might be an attractive option to some!

Changes from VB5 to VB6 weren't all that radical.  It was the change
from VB6 to VB.NET, aka VB7, that was the shocker (dozens of backwards
incompatible changes -- mostly taking VB's semantics closer to Python's,
btw, and therefore actually for the better, but still...).  I thought
the window of opportunity -- millions of VB6 programmers reluctant to
move to dotNET -- had more or less closed by now, but Aahz apparently
has identified that it's still open.  If that perception is correct,
then the book would indeed have quite a target-market, potentially.

Presumably, putting "VB6" in the title is meant to convey "you don't
need to understand dotNET to profit from this book".  I don't know if
there are substantial slices of programmers still stuck on VB5, VB4, ...,
and so on backwards, that might be scared off by the "6" in the title.


Alex