Computer Programming for Everybody Using Python

Ursus Maximus writes "Python City, formerly known as the Python Liberation Front, is an attempt to further Guido van Rossum's dream of making computer programming accessible to any intelligent person. Featuring more than 20 detailed reviews of programming books,presented from a newbie's point of view, as well as links to 14 tutorials for learning Python, the site is a good starting point for folks interested in scripting. In addition, you will find an online interactive script for Choosing Your Own Programming Language, based on one's own preferences, expectations, and priorities, While the script is written in JavaScript, there are no apologies for any perceived bias towards Python ;-)))). You will also find several interesting and fun GPL'ed scripts such as askMerlin, an online, artificially intellgent Oracle; DecisionAnalysis, to help you make up your mind; and myGale, a webcrawler to routinely collect all online articles about Python. Add in a dash of Monty Python humor and newbies will find learning Python to be not only painless but indeed, fun!"

Comments

Cool site but skip the rant under "Farnham's Freeh

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool site, but be sure to skip the rant under the first link titled "Farnham's Freehold". I sure wish I had. The sci-fi novel was too good to be trivalized in this manner.

The choose your language script is fun, but hopelessly biased towards Python. For anyone interested in learning Python, though, the links to so many tutorials and book reviews could be priceless.

I gotta admit, Python is a retty good language; as easy to learn as any I've ever found, yet powerful.

Where is Perl?!?

[Jehlon]

==> http://www.awaretek.com/atesterea.html

Alright, so Perl is a language there, and gets a score, but for all my trying, I can't get it to be the number one language for me, what gives?

Other than that, this is useful information, a good site.

Re:Where is Perl?!?

[MindStalker]

If you put 1's in just one section and put 0's in all the rest you can see how man points each language has per percent you give it. Anyways, the reason you can't get perl to be top is because according to his figures. Python beats perl is everything except speed and popularity (may be true, may not) and c/c++ stomps both in those sections and you can get perl to have a higher score than python or c++ but not both at the same time. He needs other indicators obviously, ability to run non compiled code with speed might be a good one :) Anyways its actually heavily biased towards C/C++ with C/C++ getting top scores for everything excaept ease of lerning (gettering vy low score, which I don't agree with) and each of use (getting moderate score).

Re:delphi

[MindStalker]

c isn't very far off, if you increase the speed of execution expectation it'll eventually say, ok you need C/C++

Python is great for training

[freebsd guy]

About a year ago, I was sentenced to do community service to get a nasty DUI conviction expunged, so (as a computer geek) I chose to help educate youngsters at the local middle school's computer lab. Although their existing course taught them Qbasic, I convinced the instructor (really, just the librarian) to pursue open source alternatives to the proprietary Microsoft-controlled language. I had recommended Perl but we agreed that Python was easier to learn and would be of greater use to the young'uns.

The results were quite simply amazing: some of the more precocious students were writing GTK applications by the end of the semester. The slower students stuck to the prescribed assignments (the usual checkbook balancing software and such) - yet nobody had any serious problems learning the language because it was very intuitive. At the end of the course, we had the students design and implement a piece of software on a written exam, and I am pleased to say that nobody produced less than C-grade work.

freebsd guy

Lisp/Scheme

[brlewis]

See Kent Pitman's interview for more information on Lisp. Scheme is a similar language or a Lisp dialect. It's very easy to learn if you're coming at it with no prior programming experience, but its syntax is different from what most programmers are used to. That's why it has a hard-to-learn reputation among programmers. Also because it's typically used in Computer Science courses where difficult concepts are taught.

It comes up first only because the JavaScript code for that page has no provision for ties.

Re:Regarding the online script

[JMZero]

And if you put in all 0's, Lisp is the best. Apparently it's good for those who don't want anything to do with programming.

Also, there is a combination of settings that will mean Visual Basic wins, although Python and C are the only ones that are "best in their category".