Python education survey

[Rick Johnson]

On Dec 27, 11:59 am, K Richard Pixley <r... at noir.com> wrote:

> The problem is that IDLE is hard to set up.  (I've never managed it and
> I'm a well seasoned veteran).

Can you qualify that statement? Do you mean "difficult to set up on
certain OS's"? Because for windows there is no difficulty.

> And [IDLE is] pretty much only good for python,

Yes, i will agree on that! We could create snap-ins for other
languages, but, there are many good multi-language editors out there
already.

>  I'd
> expect.  You'd do better to encourage eclipse, but setting that up isn't
> trivial either.  You could create your own distribution of eclipse, but
> then you have that "only useful for python" problem again.

Same boat, different lake.

> If students are going to go anywhere else after this class, they're
> going to need to either be able to learn to switch editors or find an
> editor they can use more generally.

Agreed!

>  Everyone ends up writing some html
> eventually, for instance.

most folks write more than just HTML! Ruby, Lisp, Perl, C, Java, etc.

>  Either way requires climbing a learning curve
> that would be difficult to justify for a single class.

Yes, i must agree that IDLE does not scale. It's true that IDLE is
only good for Python. Could we make the IDLE usable for other
languages? Yes, but what good is that going to do? IDLE is already
slow due to Tkinter being slow, due to Python being slow... etc. I
must admit that IDLE is only useful for complete beginners, those who
code only in Python, or those who don't care about using a specific
Python IDE.

But that damn "batteries included" and CPFE keeps creeping up! What to
do, what to do?