[Tutor] New to programming

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> Without starting an advocacy thread, why is Python so well 
> spoken of as a first language?  

Some of this is covered in the intro to my tutor

http://www.crosswinds.net/~agauld

But a quick bullet list would include:

- Its free
- Its higher level than C++ (fewer statements to do the same job)
- Its dynamically typed(means you don't need to worry 
   about details too soon)
- It supports many programming styles so you can grow as you learn
- It doesn't use many weird symbols or characters 
	(eg C based languages us || for OR  and && for AND 
	whereas python uses 'or' and 'and' - easy eh?!
- It has a friendly and generally patient user community who 
	are keen to help.

Other languages can claim the same(Lisp/Scheme, Logo, 
Smalltalk to name 3) but Python does seems to work well in practice.

Alan g