Teaching Programming

[Ed Keith]

--- On Tue, 5/4/10, Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml at behnel.de> wrote:

> From: Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml at behnel.de>
> Subject: Re: Teaching Programming
> To: python-list at python.org
> Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 7:43 AM
> superpollo, 04.05.2010 13:23:
> > Stefan Behnel ha scritto:
> >> the main reason why this problem doesn't hurt much
> in Python
> >> is that Python is a dynamic language that can get
> you extremely far
> >> without generating code. It's simply not necessary
> in most cases, so
> >> people don't run into problems with it.
> >
> > Python 2.5.4 (r254:67916, Feb 17 2009, 20:16:45)
> > [GCC 4.3.3] on linux2
> > Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for
> more information.
> >  >>> A,B=2,3
> >  >>> if A>B:
> > ... print A+B
> > ... else:
> > ... print A**B-B**2
> > ...
> > -1
> >  >>> A,B=3,2
> >  >>> if A>B:
> > ... print A+B
> > ... else:
> > ... print A**B-B**2
> > ...
> > 5
> >
> > tell me please: how can generate the same output
> (depending on A and B)
> > without control structure? i mean in a natural
> "pythonic" way...
> 
> The question is: why do you have to generate the above code
> in the first 
> place? Isn't a function enough that does the above?
> 
> Stefan
> 
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 

Just thought I'd add my $0.02 here.

I wrote AsciiLitProg (http://asciilitprog.berlios.de/) in Python. It is a literate programming tool. It generates code from a document. It can generate code in any language the author wants. It would have been a LOT easier to write if it did not generate Python code.

Python is a great language to write in (although I do wish it did a better job with closures). But it is a PITA to generate code for!

   -EdK

Ed Keith
e_d_k at yahoo.com

Blog: edkeith.blogspot.com