Guido on python3 for beginners

[Ben Finney]

Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> writes:

> There are more features in Python 3, so in that trivial sense of "more to 
> learn", I suppose that it is objectively correct that it is harder to learn 
> than Python 2. But I don't think the learning curve is any steeper.

Set against the “more features in Python 3” is the “more inconsistencies
and cruft in Python 2”.

How to weigh those objectively is beyond me, but my experience is that
the inconsistencies in Python 2 make it more difficult for newcomers
than Python 3.

> If anything, the learning curve is ever-so-slightly less steep.

Yes. The language Python 3 is more consistent with fewer historical edge
cases the beginner needs to know; and the new features don't have to be
learned all at once. Both of which mean that the newcomer has an easier
time in Python 3.

-- 
 \     “Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the |
  `\                          boots of ascension.” —ski hotel, Austria |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney