A critic of Guido's blog on Python's lambda

[Alex Martelli]

<brian at sweetapp.com> wrote:
   ...
> >> 2. There has to be a mechanism where an organization can add
> >>    developers - even if it is only for new projects. Python advocates
> >
> > Obviously.
> 
> It's good that you agree. I think that the ability to add new
> productive developers to a project/team/organization is at least part
> of what Alex means by "scaleability". I'm sure that he will correct me
> if I am wrong.

I agree with your formulation, just not with your spelling of
"scalability";-).

> [1] I'm considering introducing bugs or misdesigns that have to be
> fixed
>     as part of training for the purposes of this discussion. Also the

Actually, doing it _deliberately_ (on "training projects" for new people
just coming onboard) might be a good training technique; what you learn
by finding and fixing bugs nicely complements what you learn by studying
"good" example code.  I do not know of this technique being widely used
in real-life training, either by firms or universities, but I'd love to
learn about counterexamples.

>     time needed to learn to coordinate with the rest of the team.

Pair programming can help a lot with this (in any language, I believe)
if the pairing is carefully chosen and rotated for the purpose.


Alex