Python and Flaming Thunder

[Dan Upton]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 1:58 PM, Matthieu Brucher
<matthieu.brucher at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Perhaps.  But if elementary school students can easily understand why
> > one programming language gives the answer 100 (Flaming Thunder):
> >
> >  Write 10^2.
> >
> > but can't understand why another programming language gives the answer
> > 8 (Python):
> >
> >  Print 10^2
> >
> > then I think the comparison moves beyond a matter of taste into the
> > realm of measurable ease-of-use.
> >
>
> Well...
>
> >>> 10**2
> 100
>
> Why ^ ? There is no good reason why use ^ over ** and vice versa, so what
> you try to prove is not with your example.
>

Actually, I'm a fan of ^ over ** for exponentiation, because it's a
good visual cue for "raising."  (What if in LaTeX you had to write
$x**{y}$? :p)   Meanwhile, I don't see what ^ has to do with the
regular XOR symbol.

On the other hand, I don't really go for arguments that language x is
better than language y because there are fewer things you have to tell
new students to just accept as something you have to do.  (ie, sure,
teach Python over C or Java because it will take them less /time/ to
write hello world, but don't say "python is better because you don't
have to tell the students 'just accept you have to #include <stdio.h>,
and you have to int main(), and you have to printf instead of print")