[Edu-sig] measuring python...

[Kirby Urner]

Fun quote:

   We often refer to Perl because it contains the extremes of
   both good and bad, thus making for poignant examples. We
   respect its power but also abhor some of its abusability.
   It  can be called the "Bill Clinton" of programming languages
   because it has some good ideas and is quite good at some
   things, but it also has some serious integrity problems

   http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/langopts.htm

Relevant:

    Simplicity

    This is an attempt to keep the code simple. A common (but
    imperfect) measurement is the number of "tokens" needed.
    Tokens will be defined variables, objects, methods, keywords,
    operators, specifiers, etc.

        http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/goals.htm

Note: this page part of a vast anti-OOP site, which is fun to
explore if only because the guy is passionate about his
anti-OOPiness.

        http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/oopbad.htm

(hahah:
http://www.geocities.com/tablizer/xbasefan.htm
I'm an Xbase fan too, although I use an OOPized version
of it)

Also relevant:
http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~jnw/COP5555/Lectures/02.html

I like the approach of this latter page, which doesn't make
"readability" an atomic measure, but something higher level,
with lots of component parts (code size might fit into it).

Readability seems related to the question "What makes a
language a VHLL?"  Part of the answer:  built in data structures
that already do a lot (e.g. Python's dictionary).

Final point:  one reason I'd give for why Python is a good
first language and/or teaching language is that it has so
much in common with many other languages.  In other words,
I'd emphasize the similarities over the differences.

Python is very cosmopolitan and in this sense provides a
broad spectrum of analogies, templates, experiences, which
the student programmer can draw against, when learning
whatever next language(s) (i.e. we should never assume
that "first language" means "last language").

Kirby