-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Charles Hartman wrote: > Hence, yet again, a plea for newbies everywhere: > > I continue to believe that it really, really shouldn't be necessary for > people who want to write programs in Python for the Mac to do all this. > Great to learn as much as possible, yes, always -- but to require > people, just to get started, to learn about shells and the Terminal, > which they may never have dealt with before, even if they have a variety > of Mac programming experience, is not to put Python on its best footing. >
It *isn't* necessary to do all that. Just use the vendor-provided Python, type "python" in your shell, and you are ready to go. However, there are limits to how much complexity can be hidden. Under the hood, OS X is Unix, and if you want to program in a Unix environment, that requires a certain amount of knowledge. There's just no way around it. Additionally, if one has "a variety of Mac programming experience," then learning the conventions of the Unix shell shouldn't prove too difficult. The only exception to this that I can think of is if one's Mac programming experience consists solely of AppleScript. Just to continue the conversation, what do *you* think is the best approach? How should Python be made easier than it already is (and, frankly, compared to C, it's pretty easy)? What special difficulties or obstacles does the Mac platform present to learning Python that are not also present on other platforms? - -- Cheers, Kevin Walzer, PhD WordTech Software - "Tame the Terminal" http://www.wordtech-software.com sw at wordtech-software.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFD52YCJmdQs+6YVcoRAnmpAJ9U26KfdoTRqfnwEaHfhm5MAgp+PgCdFDyw ziWilLVNw4Y6X0JyTXuDJNI= =OY0G -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
