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From: Joshua Landau <joshua.landau.ws@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 06:11:58 +0100
Subject: Re: My son wants me to teach him Python
To: Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com>
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I don't normally respond to trolls, but I'll make an exception here.

On 14 June 2013 04:33, Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, June 13, 2013 3:18:57 PM UTC-5, Joshua Landau wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> GUI is boring. I don't give a damn about that. If I had it
>> my way, I'd never write any interfaces again (although
>> designing them is fine). Console interaction is faster to
>> do and it lets me do the stuff I *want* to do quicker.
>
> And are you willing to provide *proof* that the console is
> faster? Or is this merely just your "opinion"? I would be
> ready and willing to compete in a "Pepsi challenge" to
> disprove your claim if needed.  For instance, if i want to
> open a text file on my machine, i merely navigate to the
> file via my file browser interface, using clicks along the
> way, and then the final double click will open the text file
> using it's default program. Are you telling me you can type
> the address faster (much less remember the full path) than i
> can point and click? And if you think you're going to cheat
> by creating an "environment variable", well i can still win
> by doing the same thing with a "shortcut".

1) I said it's faster to implement, not faster to use.
2) Yes, I would win that test. Say I want to go to
"Projects/Programming Tidbits/FeedLess", I'd write "j Fee". Done. I'm
there. What was hard about that?
3) Gee, you think a graphical file manager is good? You should try
Ranger. Seriously, it's way better. (Seriously)

>> Also - Python is pretty much the only language that
>> *isn't* overkill; once you take more than the first few
>> steps a language that's *consistent* will help more with
>> learning, a mon avis, than these "quicker" languages ever
>> will. Python is consistent and simple.
>
> Your statement is an oft cited misconception of the Python
> neophyte. I'm sorry to burst your bubble whilst also raining
> on your parade, but Python is NOT consistent. And the more i
> learn about Python the more i realize just how inconsistent
> the language is. Guido has the correct "base idea", however
> he allowed the evolution to become a train wreck.

If you ignore stdlib, for a moment, lol.
If you include stdlib you're just wrong, but not humorously so.

>> [...]
>> Basically, "kid" is a *very* generic term and there are
>> people who like GUIs and there are people who like
>> internals
>
> Your statement is true however it ignores the elephant in
> the room. You can "prefer" console over GUI all day long but
> that does not negate the fact that GUI's outperform the
> console for many tasks. With the exception of text based
> games, the console is as useful for game programming as a
> cheese grater is for masturbation -- slightly amusing, but
> mostly just painful!

I'd like to see you write or do the equivalent of:
when-changed $FILE.coffee "coffee -c $FILE.coffee; xclip -selection
clipboard < $FILE.js; echo Update"
in a GUI. Really, I would.

Oh, and then make your result searchable with to all of your other
little one-liners, in a process that takes =C2=BD a second to complete.

Nevermind that I was talking about console programs being quicker to
make this whole time, rather than quicker to use.