Why python???

[yeung_too]

Dear all,

My college used C for beginner course and use Java to demostrate OO
concept. Anyway, I tried python and found that it is a very good
language. I think many people spend time on Java and university uses
Java because Sun Microsystem spends much money to promote and
develop the Java language. I just feel that our world spends most
time on promote things, rich company can promote computer language
very well. Open source without huge money support, people may
dislike their product. What do you think, But i really like open
source ideas, it improves our world, not just $$$.

an university student

(reflect my feeling)
--
Daniel Chan
Posted via http://dbforums.com

[Michael Peuser]

"yeung_too" <ye*******@yaho o.com.hk> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:33******** ********@dbforu ms.com...

Dear all,

My college used C for beginner course and use Java to demostrate OO
concept. Anyway, I tried python and found that it is a very good
language. I think many people spend time on Java and university uses
Java because Sun Microsystem spends much money to promote and
develop the Java language. I just feel that our world spends most
time on promote things, rich company can promote computer language
very well. Open source without huge money support, people may
dislike their product. What do you think, But i really like open
source ideas, it improves our world, not just $$$.

I don't think so much Python will improve our world. There are strong forces
(not only $$$) enforcing the use of other languages like Java (the COBOL of
the 21st century), C++, C# (both quite similar to Java), a little bit PHP 4
here and there and - of course! - still C (the machine independent assembly
language).

If you ever want to use your programming skills to earn money, become expert
in one of those.

What are the forces then? In all the companies - especially the smaller
ones - I worked with we used MS Office and C/C++. Because when you are
looking for a secretary she probably will know MS Office, and when you are
looking for a progarmmer he most likely will know C.

This is a kind of mathematical law ;-)

Kindly
Michael P

[John Roth]

"yeung_too" <ye*******@yaho o.com.hk> wrote in message
news:33******** ********@dbforu ms.com...

Dear all,

My college used C for beginner course and use Java to demostrate OO
concept. Anyway, I tried python and found that it is a very good
language. I think many people spend time on Java and university uses
Java because Sun Microsystem spends much money to promote and
develop the Java language. I just feel that our world spends most
time on promote things, rich company can promote computer language
very well. Open source without huge money support, people may
dislike their product. What do you think, But i really like open
source ideas, it improves our world, not just $$$.
There are a number of universities using Python as a first language.
It's got a lot to recommend it in that position, since it has a minimum
of unnecessary baggage and still has good OO capability and an
extensive enough library to get something done.

Then you can move to the other languages of real commercial interest
in subsequent courses.

It's also, of course, very useful in situations such as secondary schools
where you may want to teach programming, but the students aren't
thinking of becoming professional programmers.

John Roth
an university student

(reflect my feeling)
--
Daniel Chan
Posted via http://dbforums.com

[Johann Hibschman]

yeung_too wrote:

I think many people spend time on Java and university uses
Java because Sun Microsystem spends much money to promote and
develop the Java language.

Actually, in my experience, students will complain endlessly if they
have to use a language that they don't think will immediately get them a
job. So, usage of C, C++, and Java is probably student-driven, not
faculty-driven.

I was a grad student at UC Berkeley for years, and I remember horror
stories from the CS grad students about undergrads bitching endlessly
about having to use Scheme, because "no one uses Scheme in the real world."

Personally, I think this reveals that people are thinking of university
more as a trade school, at least in CS, rather than a "mind-broadening"
education. The humanities people never worry that Chaucer isn't used in
"the real world."

I mean, people major in "computer science" not "computer programming."
Computer science is, well, complexity, algorithms, design interactions,
and so on; things independent of brute coding.

This doesn't really help you, but I am guessing that it's your fellow
students who demand Java.

Cheers,

-Johann

[David Eppstein]

In article <mb************ ***@newsread4.n ews.pas.earthli nk.net>,
Johann Hibschman <jh********@yah oo.com> wrote:

I think many people spend time on Java and university uses
Java because Sun Microsystem spends much money to promote and
develop the Java language.

Actually, in my experience, students will complain endlessly if they
have to use a language that they don't think will immediately get them a
job. So, usage of C, C++, and Java is probably student-driven, not
faculty-driven.

I don't remember any discussion of student fears about relevance the
last few times the issue of which language to use came up at faculty
meetings. Employability of our graduates, yes, but student bitching, no.

--
David Eppstein http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/
Univ. of California, Irvine, School of Information & Computer Science

[Roy Smith]

David Eppstein <ep******@ics.u ci.edu> wrote:

I don't remember any discussion of student fears about relevance the
last few times the issue of which language to use came up at faculty
meetings. Employability of our graduates, yes, but student bitching, no.

I think a university program needs to address both employability and
theory. It's inconcievable to me that somebody could get a degree in
computer science these days without knowing C++ and Java. It's equally
inconcievable to me that they wouldn't also know several other languages.