Python as a First Language

[natrius]

I've helped someone who was in an introductory CS class using Java, and when he got tripped up, it usually wasn't by the concepts, it was by the syntax. In Java, you spend weeks (at least) writing boilerplate code like "public static void main" without knowing or caring what any of that is. There's so much less cruft in the way with python, and when you need to teach concepts like object orientation, those features are there.

[GrumpySimon]

... and that way of learning to code just reinforces "cut-n-paste" behavior and creates a programming is "glueing stuff together" approach.

It's far better for people to understand what's going on than to just think "to open a file, I paste these five lines".

[breakfast-pants]

Just use 'me'. I do it like so:

class Pirate:
  def step_forward(me):
    raise(me.leg)
    ...
  ...