How to "wow" someone new to Python

[Mario Figueiredo]

 Chris,

> Scenario: You're introducing someone to Python for the first time.
> S/he may have some previous programming experience, or may be new to
> the whole idea of giving a computer instructions. You have a couple of
> minutes to show off how awesome Python is. What do you do?

Some ideas where given by others already. I especially liked the variable 
swap one liner by Emile van Sebille. That's a little simple gem that will 
impress any seasoned developer of other programming languages.

But speaking about impressing more experient programmers, I personally don't 
think Python has a wow factor in any of its features and syntax. At least 
in the way I understand the word "wow". Python shares its own brand of idiosyncracies 
with any other programming languages. Little gotchas and caveats that have 
you scratch your head and sometimes annoy you slightly. Python is it too 
cropped here and there with things worth criticizing.

Meanwhile some of its interesting language features, like Comprehensions 
and Generators, aren't really that impressive to a seasoned developer of 
functional programming languages or programming languages like C# with its 
highly powerful and expressive LINQ.

This means that, alone, Python won't really standout. But this is ok. No 
language does it on the merits of its syntax or feature set.

What does make Python standout in my opinion -- what gave me the wow -- is 
its interoperability. Here we have a general purpose scripting language with 
more hooks to other systems that any other programming language in existence. 
With just Python, I can build a modern GUI interface on any of the most popular 
operating systems, use it on PostgreSQL to build stored procedures and move 
most of my business rules to the database server and attach dynamic behavior 
to a system developed in some other programming language.

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I apologize if my post was to long, but I lacked the time to make it shorter.