My son wants me to teach him Python

[Rick Johnson]

On Thursday, June 13, 2013 3:18:57 PM UTC-5, Joshua Landau wrote:

> [...]
> GUI is boring. I don't give a damn about that. If I had it
> my way, I'd never write any interfaces again (although
> designing them is fine). Console interaction is faster to
> do and it lets me do the stuff I *want* to do quicker.

And are you willing to provide *proof* that the console is
faster? Or is this merely just your "opinion"? I would be
ready and willing to compete in a "Pepsi challenge" to
disprove your claim if needed.  For instance, if i want to
open a text file on my machine, i merely navigate to the
file via my file browser interface, using clicks along the
way, and then the final double click will open the text file
using it's default program. Are you telling me you can type
the address faster (much less remember the full path) than i
can point and click? And if you think you're going to cheat
by creating an "environment variable", well i can still win
by doing the same thing with a "shortcut".

> Also - Python is pretty much the only language that
> *isn't* overkill; once you take more than the first few
> steps a language that's *consistent* will help more with
> learning, a mon avis, than these "quicker" languages ever
> will. Python is consistent and simple.

Your statement is an oft cited misconception of the Python
neophyte. I'm sorry to burst your bubble whilst also raining
on your parade, but Python is NOT consistent. And the more i
learn about Python the more i realize just how inconsistent
the language is. Guido has the correct "base idea", however
he allowed the evolution to become a train wreck.

> [...]
> Basically, "kid" is a *very* generic term and there are
> people who like GUIs and there are people who like
> internals

Your statement is true however it ignores the elephant in
the room. You can "prefer" console over GUI all day long but
that does not negate the fact that GUI's outperform the
console for many tasks. With the exception of text based
games, the console is as useful for game programming as a
cheese grater is for masturbation -- slightly amusing, but
mostly just painful!