[Edu-sig] Accessibility to non CS types?

[kirby urner]

Given Python's original goal was to be friendly to techies who are not
specifically computer scientists, I'm finding it telling how few
physics majors get any exposure to the language, even today.

Even though it's used a lot on the job in many walks of life (per
success stories), I think we could do better.

I'm not blaming Python per se, but I think the OO paradigm shift left
many competent coders behind, still remembering a golden age when they
were able to get work done using Fortran or Pascal.

Now they open a tutorial or book on such as Python, and immediately
feel lost.  There's a lot of new jargon, and not many references to
languages they already know.  Where is "Python for Pascal
programmers"?

One might say this is only a generation gap and people new to coding
are picking up the latest and greatest concepts.  Unfortunately, I'm
seeing a lot of evidence that this is not true, at least not outside
of CS departments, because it's the older generation that's teaching
the younger, and now that they've lost proficiency, they're making do
with inappropriate and inadequate solutions a lot of the time.

In sum, I think Python could be reaching more people than it is,
including in its original target demographic (technical people needing
an easy computer language).

For more background, check out my latest blog post here:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2006/05/coffee-shop-physics.html

Kirby