Promoting Python

[BartC]

On 06/04/2016 12:38, Ned Batchelder wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at 7:06:28 AM UTC-4, BartC wrote:
>> On 05/04/2016 06:48, Gordon( Hotmail ) wrote:
>>> The problem I am finding is most of the sites claiming to help understand Python devote
>>> far too much space bragging about the wonders of Python instead of...
>>
>> I fully agree. But you don't have to use classes, exceptions,
>> decorators, generators, iterators, closures, comprehensions, meta
>> classes, ... the list of meaningless buzzwords just goes on.
>
> These are not meaningless buzzwords.  They are technical terms describing
> the features of the language.  You don't see the need for these features,
> so perhaps you haven't bothered to learn about them, but that does not
> make them meaningless.

OK, I'll withdraw the word 'meaningless'. Out of the eight things I 
listed, I would only need to go and look up the meaning of three of them.

Out of the rest, I've only used classes to implement records, and have 
been obliged to use exceptions because that was how some functions worked.

> You might as well say that toolboxes have too many meaningless buzzwords like
> hammer, screwdriver, wrench, chisel, etc.

No, those are the basics. Unless you want to suggest a lump of rock and 
a stick are the basic tools of DIY!

> It seems like a willful refusal to
> learn about what the language offers.

The context here is of someone moving over from Basic, which barely had 
proper function calls. Then you don't need that advanced stuff. That can 
be acquired gradually later on, if someone wants to. But get people 
hooked into the language first rather than frightening them off.

> But let's please not run down the rathole again of you telling us that things
> like classes and exceptions are useless, and us trying to show you why they
> are useful. We've been around and around those arguments, and there doesn't
> seem to be anything more to say about it.
>
> Just say that you prefer simpler languages, and leave it at that.

I'm saying that people should be allowed to use Python in simple ways. 
The language seems to have nearly everything necessary to make that 
possible.

(Except 'goto', which imposes some limitations. 'if' and 'goto' allow 
any kind of control flow to be programmed.)

-- 
Bartc