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by c7DJTLrn 1272 days ago
Python is syntactically simple but that doesn't necessarily make it a good choice for beginners. I've seen students spend hours wrestling the interpreter over whitespace issues.
2 comments
Izkata 1271 days ago
I tend towards recommending python just because of that. I used to be a TA in an intro to programming course, and it's unbelievable the mess complete beginners can make when indentation isn't enforced, like in {} delimited languages.
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pjmlp 1271 days ago
Maybe they shouldn't be using Notepad.
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c7DJTLrn 1271 days ago
err, they were using IDLE.
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pjmlp 1271 days ago
Then they should have spent some minutes reading documentation on how to use their tooling,

https://docs.python.org/3/library/idle.html#automatic-indent...

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c7DJTLrn 1271 days ago
The docs you linked say that IDLE can help with indentation, not reindent code for you. This might surprise you, but students don't necessarily know how to preserve indentation or reindent code as they cut/paste around.
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pjmlp 1271 days ago
> See also the indent/dedent region commands on the Format menu.

So not even you are reading the documentation?

And if IDLE is not good enough for students, Komodo IDE exists for 20 years, VS and VSCode also do a quite good job, PyCharm, as do Emacs and vim.

It isn't as if the alternative JavaScript and Go code is being written without adequate tooling.

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