I'm giving a Python course today, to a team of seasoned programmers, and of course I'm coming up with a few things that are different to the languages they know. So far, we've had ...

* No switch statement
* No ++ operator
* blocks indicated via insets
* else clauses on while loops

Of course, this makes them a little nervous, although it will turn out later on that the facilities that aren't present wouldn't be at all vital in Python, and indeed they may encourage poor coding practise. And block insets and extra "elses" are so natural once people are use to that way of doing things.

But people still aren't always convinced. "What do you drive?" I ask them. "A Ford" they say (or something else). "If you switched to a Vauxhall, would it be easy?" I ask. "Not neccessarily - things will be in different places ..." is the answer but, yes, they would get used to the Vauxhall positioning in time.

Actually, Python can be very different. I used to drive a narrowboat quite regularly, and that's the complete opposite of driving a car - push the tiller to the right to go left for starters, and then remember that the boat takes a while to react as you're not controlling types straight onto the ground, but rather you're changing the direction via the water. Ah - but once you've driven a boat a few times you find there's a great natural beauty in it, and in the way it works. 8 tons can be controlled by just a gentle push with a single finger - much more efficient even that your car. Yes, that's a good desription of the beauty and effiency of Python too - Python is like a narrowboat.
(written 2006-10-30 15:25:55)

 Y101 - Introduction to Python
Y103 - Python - Conditionals and Loops

Back to And so to Inverness

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Helping the miles pass

Python - A list of methods
Recursion in Python
Letter Home
Helping the miles pass
Python is like a narrowboat
And so to Inverness
Browser -> httpd -> Tomcat -> MySQL. Restarting.
A commitment we won't be making
Not proud to be British
Of course I'll tell you by email
Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 at 50 posts per page


This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).