Myth: Python is ideal for beginners

[Ryan]

>From My own experiance, I can say:
>>>Python_good_forNewbie
>>>TRUE
I did have some basic back in '85 or so, and I have been using a
computer most of my life, but I wasn't interested in programming until
I read Eric Raymod's How to be a Hacker and he sugested Python.
Since I started that (about 2 years ago), I have written several
utilities for companies I have worked for, (a contact, note program
for managment to keep track of thing with thier emplyees, a windows
registry diff program for seeing changes made before and after an
install of a program to clean up the mess that the uninstall rotine
left, and a conversion of an ancient contacts database for my Dad's
company to migrate the information to Outlook Express's addressbook
including auto-importing it into OE)
I'm now teaching myself C, and even though reading some information
was a little cryptic (C and stack stuff)  it was realatively painless,
now C is a breeze to pickup, I read an intro text book in two weeks,
made a link list that only lets one copie of each item into the list,
and I intend to use that as part of a larger program that will be a
small address, phone-book.
Without Python I wouldn't even realize that was possible without
reading tons of source, or stumbling across a mention of someone else
doing it (Makefiles syntax for a real program is to complex to gleen
what is really going on without doing some yourself)

Just to reitterate, Python teaches you the basics of control flow and
logic without drowning you in algorithims and pointers (Java dosn't
have pointers, but it has enough othter foibles that it is __NOT__ a
good learning language, just the library and deriving classes get to
deep to quick)

Learning in school is better (You would get a lot of the algorithims
and this is how to do that stuff, but on your own Python is complex
enough that learning how to sort is not something you want to figure
out the logic for)

my $2.00 worth (as one of the few posters that learned Python first
and has written aying code)
Ryan
srart__remove_the_underllined_parts at opera___mail.com

dickerc6 at hotmail.com (pedro alvarez) wrote in message news:<bfac4f24.0302061044.5876c99d at posting.google.com>...
> 'Python is ideal for beginers'
> How many times have i seen that statement?
> Is python ideal for beginners?
> Upon close investigation and thinking, this is what i found out:
> 
> The majority of the python communities resources are geared towards
> attracting and absorbing refugees from other languages, not attracting
> fresh young converts.( i myself run away from c/c++)