[Edu-sig] The fate of raw_input() in Python 3000

[John Zelle]

On Friday 08 September 2006 4:27 pm, kirby urner wrote:
> On 9/8/06, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> > You're not making a monkey out of your mom, by making her loop through
> > some little menu, oblivious of the language underneath, its logic and
> > design.  You're "protecting you mother" (aka paradigm end user) from
> > knowing *anything* about Python.  That's your goal, that's the whole
> > point (i.e. end user = not a programmer).
>
> Just to clarify:  I think it *is* condescending to newbies to force
> them through a lot of raw_input scripts, since this is:
>
> (a) not state of the art from and end user's point of view nor is it (not
> GUI)

This is like saying that Physics students have to start with General 
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, because those are state of the art. No one 
is denying that it's good to teach GUI programming at some point. Is that the 
simplest way to introduce programming? My learning philosophy is to always 
search out the simplest thing that illustrates the principles I want my 
students to learn at the moment. Anything more complex is just adding noise 
and complicating the learning process. 

> (b) not state of the art "coding for self" idiom (which'd be more
> shell interactive)

While I accept the power of twiddling in the shell particularly as an 
educational tool (again, I come from a Lisp/Prolog tradition), this statement 
is just silly. How can you define "state of the art" for any "self" but your 
own. When I write a script to automate some routine task, I virtually always 
use interactive text input. Why? Because the whole point is to make something 
routine and automatic. Why would I write a program that forces me to: 
Start Python
Import a module
Recall what I'm suppose to invoke and what information it needs.

Instead I can write an incredibly simply script that I just click on, and when 
it needs information it prompts me for it. That's _my_ state of the art in 
programming for myself. And it's something I can teach students to do for 
themselves in very short order.

Whether I'm writing for myself or whether I want my students to be able to 
write the simplest possible useful programs for themselves and others, that 
involves textual input. I'll say it one more time: IO is fundamental to 
programming; the simplest universal form of IO deserves to be in the core 
language so that it is easily accessible and available everywhere the 
language runs. Pascal got that right and Python (pre 3000) has it right.

> As teachers, we shouldn't be propagating the hidden assumptions that
> go with raw_input, i.e. that there's this class if people out there
> "too dumb" to know anything about namespaces or functions.
>

Translate this to any other discipline. Running with my physics example: "As 
teachers, we shouldn't be propogating the hidden assumptions that go with 
Newtonian mechanics, i.e. that there's this class of people out there 'too 
dumb' to know anything about quantum physics or general relativity."  Does 
that really make sense? The fact that there is more advanced stuff that they 
will surely learn in due course is in no way a justification for not teaching 
simpler, useful concepts first.

> I'm saying this'll all be common knowledge soon.

Define "soon." I see the same demographic as Brad Miller. My students are 
freshman in college who have never programmed. And frankly, I'm OK with that.

> We'll know about 'strings' just as surely as we know about 'numbers'.
>
> Why?  Because "computer literacy" is not just for some tiny inner
> circle.  It's just basic fluency.  Like my friend Gene Fowler puts it
> (paraphrasing):  any poet worth his or her salt should know about XML
> already. http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2006/08/more-cast.html

None of the poets I know care a twiddle about XML. I guess we just move in 
different circles. 

--John

-- 
John M. Zelle, Ph.D.             Wartburg College
Professor of Computer Science    Waverly, IA     
john.zelle at wartburg.edu          (319) 352-8360