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[Python-Dev] Informal educator feedback on PEP 572 (was Re: 2018 Python Language Summit coverage, last part)

Chris Barker chris.barker at noaa.gov
Fri Jun 22 14:28:45 EDT 2018 
On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 10:09 AM, Michael Selik <mike at selik.org> wrote:

> I forgot to add that I don't anticipate changing my lesson plans if this
> proposal is accepted. There's already not enough time to teach everything
> I'd like. Including a new assignment operator would distract from the
> learning objectives.
>

nor would I. For a while, anyway....

But once it becomes a more common idiom, students will see it in the wild
pretty early in their path to learning python. So we'll need to start
introducing it earlier than later.

I think this reflects that the "smaller" a language is, the easier it is to
learn.

Python has already grown a fair bit since 1.5 (when I started using it :-)
). Some things, like generators, are special purpose enough that I can wait
pretty far into the program before teaching them. But others, like
comprehensions (and lambda) are common enough that I have to introduce them
pretty early on.

Adding := is not a HUGE change, but it IS an expansion of the language, and
one that we WILL have to introduce in an introductory course once it starts
seeing common use.

I really have no idea how much harder thats going to make the langauge to
teach, but it will make it a bit harder -- I see enough confusion with "is"
vs == already...

-CHB

-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
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