[Tutor] Defining variable arguments in a function in python

[Alan Gauld]

On 30/12/2018 22:25, Avi Gross wrote:

> I admit I have not studied the charter for the group.

As moderator I feel the need to step in here because the
charter is extremely apropos to that function and some
clarification may be helpful.

Mark is correct in that the group is focused on the
core language and standard library as documented on
python.org.

That is, it does not cover third party modules
like SciPy or Pillow or frameworks like wxPython or
Django etc, regardless of how popular these may be.

That having been said, we do normally allow questions
on these modules to go through because there is a fair
amount of in-house expertise and so a fair chance
of providing an answer without protracted discussion.

The group also has a secondary mission included in
the statement Mark quoted, which is to help beginners
"learn computer programming" and that aspect of our
charter encompasses the occasional non-python led
topic on the nature of programming and the wider areas
of software engineering - although we prefer topics to
be illustrated using Python. Occasionally, language
comparisons are valid in highlighting areas where
Python is stronger or weaker relative to other tools.

The final valid area for discussion is the meta topic
of what (and how) the group should discuss. But that
subject raises its head very rarely these days.

> The standard library is not something I consider as 
> many distributions automatically add libraries ...

While that is true, the term 'standard library' is
generally understood to be the one distributed from
and documented with the official language. In our
case that means the python.org web site.

Distributions like Anaconda, Entropy, Maya, and
RaspberryPi etc all exist for specific audiences and
add modules suited to those tasks. But they also
have their own support communities better qualified
to deal with their issues.

Sometimes the best answer is a simple referral to
one of those community fora.

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
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