On Sat, 7 Sep 2002 14:21:22 +0900, Reimer Behrends wrote:
> One might consider "teachability" as an alternate metric, since
> the task of communicating programming language concepts to a given
> target audience can at least be estimated. (And personally, I'd
> rank Python above Ruby according to that metric; but both way
> above Perl. The idea of designing a curriculum to teach Perl to
> novice programmers scares me, to be honest.)

I'm curious -- why would you rate Python above Ruby for
"teachability"?

I've been a programmer for a long time, and I've got about a dozen
languages under my belt -- and I "got" Ruby quickly. I still can't
"get" Python. Some of it, of course, might have to be with what I
consider to be the utterly stupid rule of enforced formatting taking
the place of explicit blocks (as Larry said, a paragraph should
have a beginning, a middle, and an end -- so should blocks).

I realise that I'm coming from a different point of view than your
stated goal (teaching novice programmrs), but for the life of me, I
can't see why Python would be easier to learn than Ruby. (After all,
isn't Python's OO bolted-on, too?)

-austin
-- Austin Ziegler, austin / halostatue.ca on 2002.09.07 at 20.34.46