Python for philosophers

[Fábio Santos]

On 11 May 2013 21:07, "Citizen Kant" <citizenkant at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> this could be seen as an extravagant subject but that is not my original
purpose. I still don't know if I want to become a programmer or not. At
this moment I'm just inspecting the environment. I'm making my way to
Python (and OOP in general) from a philosophical perspective or point of
view and try to set the more global definition of Python's core as an
"entity". In order to do that, and following Wittgenstein's indication
about that the true meaning of words doesn't reside on dictionaries but in
the use that we make of them, the starting question I make to myself about
Python is: which is the single and most basic use of Python as the entity
it is? I mean, beside programming, what's the single and most basic result
one can expect from "interacting" with it directly (interactive mode)? I
roughly came to the idea that Python could be considered as an economic
mirror for data, one that mainly mirrors the data the programmer types on
its black surface, not exactly as the programmer originally typed it, but
expressed in the most economic way possible. That's to say, for example, if
one types >>>1+1 Python reflects >>>2. When data appears between
apostrophes, then the mirror reflects, again, the same but expressed in the
most economic way possible (that's to say without the apostrophes).
>
> So, would it be legal (true) to define Python's core as an entity that
mirrors whatever data one presents to it (or feed it with) showing back the
most shortened expression of that data?
>
> Don't get me wrong. I can see the big picture and the amazing things that
programmers write on Python, it's just that my question points to the
lowest level of it's existence.
>
> Thanks a lot for your time.
>

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic but I'll reply anyway. Python does
not necessarily shorten data. The Python machine is the house for your
representations of data, your own "mirrors".

When you program you are asking python to acknowledge your representations
and to do work on them as you specify. Both of these tasks are expressed in
code. The first is the simplest, where you create your classes. It is
optional since you may use no classes at all and instead use files, text
and numbers, or classes given by someone else. The second is where you give
the orders and lay a script (as in a movie script, or a game script) out.
You can create and command many representations of data in order to make
your program fulfill its purpose. You can also make choices according to
the current state of your data.
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