Myth: Python is ideal for beginners

[David Brady]

On Thu, 2003-02-06 at 11:44, pedro alvarez wrote:
> The majority of the python communities resources are geared towards
> attracting and absorbing refugees from other languages, not attracting
> fresh young converts.

That's an interesting observation, and I think you are right about
attracting refugees.  I don't necessarily think attracting refugees and
converts are mutually exclusive, however.

I personally evangelize Python to all new programmers I come across as
an ideal starting language.  It's a language that can get them thinking
about algorithms and OO design right off the bat, and not waste a
terrible amount of time fussing over arcane syntax rules.

> Going around the web, u see tutorials on advanced concepts 

I see this as a hallmark of the inherent goodness (tm) of the language. 
I've directed near-utter newbies to Python dox showing how to manage
sockets and threads, and with only a little coaching they're doing stuff
in 2 weeks that took me 5 years to get a grasp on.

> To further demonstrate, can u show me a prominent author who began his
> programming with python?(chuckle,chuckle)

Given Python's relative infancy, can you show me a prominent author
who's only been programming for 5 years, in ANY language?

Mmmmmmm, Python goooooood.

Cheers,

-dB