[Edu-sig] learning python the "best" way... (end of year overview)

[memilanuk]

On 12/14/2016 10:53 AM, kirby urner wrote:
> 
> At the PDX Code Guild, which has a Monday
> night Flying Circus event, which I've been
> frequenting -- though not in the last five weeks
> as my teaching gig was Mon / Weds -- I hear
> quite a few geeks say they've been studying
> Learning Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw.
> 
> I finally took a look at the on-line version
> yesterday and notice he's very adamant about
> learning 2.7, not 3.x.  Disappointing.  Maybe
> he's working on the 3.x version.
>

Ah... you seem to have missed the entertainment on Reddit and HN back in
November ;)

https://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/nopython3.html

"THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY THAT PYTHON 3 IS SUCH A FAILURE IT WILL
KILL PYTHON"

https://zedshaw.com/2016/11/24/the-end-of-coder-influence/

There are any number of threads & blogs on various sites (Reddit, HN,
etc.) addressing / rebutting his comments.

On the one hand... I kind of agree with him, that it sure seems like it
would have been a better design decision to have made the Py3 VM
seamlessly handle Py2 code.  Other languages have done it to various
degrees.  Lord knows it's been a major schism in the community for way
too long.

That said... I personally don't care for his way of addressing the
topic... but thats just me.  He's certainly free to say what he wants.
It does somewhat raise the question of whether his material is a good
example to put forth for people new to the community.