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Looking for Python programmers--where to search?

Ian Hobson ian.hobson at ntlworld.com
Fri Sep 1 19:17:33 EDT 2000 
In article <8oh4mi0etd at news2.newsguy.com>, Alex Martelli
<aleaxit at yahoo.com> writes
>Nah.  On a first programming course, ONE, *simple*, language,
>should be picked.  I'd choose Python, with some understanding
>for teachers who'd prefer Scheme (with students with a deep
>background in mathematical/abstract reasoning), or maybe a
>very strictly/statically typed language (not my preference, but
>I respect the classic school which claims such languages help
>beginners, although I've come to think they don't).  Something
>*simple*, anyway -- a language that will basically get out of
>the way pretty soon, leaving a student free to concentrate on
>the real substance of the ideas.  Time enough in further courses
>to introduce the student to some measure of the huge variety
>of languages, paradigms, etc, that they'll need further on.

I totally agree. 

Pascal was designed for just this purpose, and then some bright spark
wrote a compiler for it!

Pascal will quickly get out of the way, and it is impossible to do
naughty things with pointers without significant knowledge. 

Python or Pascal would be my choice. 

Regards
Ian Hobson 

Every time we teach a child something, we prevent him from inventing 
it himself. - Jean Piaget
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