Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!news.stack.nl!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed2a.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.015 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.97; '*S*': 0.00; 'subject:Python': 0.06; 'compact': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'subject:How': 0.10; 'python': 0.11; 'language.': 0.14; 'easily,': 0.16; 'ideally,': 0.16; 'language?': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 's/he': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; "python's": 0.19; 'example': 0.22; 'programming': 0.22; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.23; 'received:comcast.net': 0.24; 'second': 0.26; 'header:X-Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'header:In- Reply-To:1': 0.27; 'idea': 0.28; 'chris': 0.29; 'am,': 0.29; 'quickly': 0.29; 'see,': 0.30; 'along': 0.30; 'lines': 0.31; 'something': 0.35; 'but': 0.35; 'introducing': 0.36; 'shows': 0.36; 'should': 0.36; 'experience,': 0.37; 'half': 0.37; 'so,': 0.37; 'subject:new': 0.38; 'awesome': 0.38; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.38; 'previous': 0.38; 'subject:" ': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'how': 0.40; 'is.': 0.60; 'new': 0.61; 'simple': 0.61; "you're": 0.61; 'first': 0.61; 'show': 0.63; 'skip:n 10': 0.64; 'great': 0.65; 'charset:windows-1252': 0.65; 'details': 0.65; 'minutes': 0.67; 'walk-through': 0.84; 'conference:': 0.91 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Ned Batchelder Subject: Re: How to "wow" someone new to Python Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:34:38 -0500 References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: c-50-133-228-126.hsd1.ma.comcast.net User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.10; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.3.0 In-Reply-To: X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 31 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1421674492 news.xs4all.nl 2887 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:39241 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:84012 On 1/16/15 10:03 AM, Chris Angelico wrote: > Scenario: You're introducing someone to Python for the first time. > S/he may have some previous programming experience, or may be new to > the whole idea of giving a computer instructions. You have a couple of > minutes to show off how awesome Python is. What do you do? > > I was thinking along the lines of a simple demo in the REPL, showing > off some of Python's coolest features. But then I got stuck on the > specifics. What are Python's best coolnesses? What makes for a good > demo? > > Ideally, this should be something that can be demo'd quickly and > easily, and it should be impressive without going into great details > of "and see, this is how it works on the inside". So, how would you > brag about this language? > > ChrisA > Peter Norvig's spell corrector is a compact example of a lot of Python power: http://norvig.com/spell-correct.html I used it as a walk-through example for a presentation about Python at the DevDays conference: http://nedbatchelder.com/text/devdays.html The second half of the presentation is a 25-line nano-templating engine which shows off some other good characteristics of the language. -- Ned Batchelder, http://nedbatchelder.com