The current version tutorial *already* isn't written in my voice any more. I don't want to argue about the rest but I disagree with a lot of your other bullets too.
On Mon, Nov 9, 2020 at 11:28 AM Raymond Hettinger < raymond.hettin...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On Nov 7, 2020, at 9:51 AM, Riccardo Polignieri via Python-Dev < > python-dev@python.org> wrote: > > > > My concern here is that if you start removing or simplifying some > "too-difficult-for-a-tutorial" bits of information on an occasional basis, > and without too much scrutiny or editorial guidance, you will end up > loosing something precious. > > I concur with you sentiments and do not want the tutorial to be dumbed > down. > > Here are a few thoughts on the subject: > > * The word "tutorial" does not imply "easy". Instead it is a self-paced, > example driven walk-through of the language. That said, if the word > "tutorial" doesn't sit well, then just rename the guide. > > * The world is full of well-written guides for beginners. The variety is > especially important because "beginner" means many different things: > "never programmed before", "casually checking out what the language > offers", "expert in some other language", "is a student in elementary > school", "is a student in high school", "is an electrical engineer needing > write scripts", etc. > > * One thing that makes the current tutorial special is that much of it was > written by Guido. Delete this text and you lose one of the few places > where his voice comes through. > > * There is value in having non-trivial coverage of the language. When > people ask how __cause__ works, we can link to the tutorial. Otherwise, we > have to throw them to the wolves by linking to the unfriendly, highly > technical reference guide or to a PEP. > > * For many people, our tutorial serves as the only systematic walk-through > of the language. If you decide to drop the mention of complex numbers, the > odds of a person ever finding about that capability drop to almost zero. > > * My suggestion is that we add a section to the beginning of the tutorial > with external links elsewhere, "If you are ten years old, go here. If have > never programmed before, go here, etc" > > * If you think the word tutorial implies fluffy and easy, then let's just > rename it to "Language walk-through with examples" or some such. > > * FWIW, I've closely monitored the bug tracker daily for almost two > decades. We almost never get a user complaint that the tutorial is too > advanced. For the most part, it has long been of good service to users. > Almost certainly it can be improved, but hopefully not be dropping content. > > > Raymond > _______________________________________________ > Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org > To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/ > Message archived at > https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/CYFDV4ZYGUFGCYUI5HPTF66UNZ4FXO2M/ > Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/ > -- --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido) *Pronouns: he/him **(why is my pronoun here?)* <http://feministing.com/2015/02/03/how-using-they-as-a-singular-pronoun-can-change-the-world/>
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