From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on yquem.inria.fr X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=none autolearn=disabled version=3.1.3 X-Original-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Received: from mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr (mail2-relais-roc.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.83]) by yquem.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50FAEBC37 for ; Fri, 4 Sep 2009 12:26:46 +0200 (CEST) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AtQBABeIoErRVdvbkGdsb2JhbACbAD8BAQEBCQkMBxMDvQeEGwU X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.44,331,1249250400"; d="scan'208";a="32200225" Received: from mail-ew0-f219.google.com ([209.85.219.219]) by mail2-smtp-roc.national.inria.fr with ESMTP; 04 Sep 2009 12:26:46 +0200 Received: by ewy19 with SMTP id 19so690525ewy.44 for ; Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:26:45 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.52.76 with SMTP id d54mr2132606wec.119.1252060005457; Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:26:45 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4AA0DEB4.6020307@glondu.net> References: <4A9FBF04.1060608@gmail.com> <20090904105505.055ec82e@attale.agematis.loc> <4AA0DEB4.6020307@glondu.net> Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 12:26:45 +0200 Message-ID: <7d8707de0909040326x37d455cdi9f480b2b5da96b20@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Why don't you use batteries? From: Andrej Bauer To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Spam: no; 0.00; andrej:01 andrej:01 ocaml:01 trivialities:01 syntax:01 python's:01 beginners:01 caml-list:01 python:03 indentation:04 install:05 install:05 installed:05 linux:07 useless:07 I would use batteries and would recommend it to my students if there were any chance they would succeed installing it. In other words, batteries is too hard to install. This may not be so on Linux, but what about Windows (99% of my students use Windows only)? By the way, my experience with students trying to install software (on WindowS) was that: a) Java is easy to install but is useless by itself b) Java + Textpad editor is hard to install because Java must be installed before Textpad c) Java + Eclipse is hard to install because Eclipse is scary d) Ocaml is very hard to install for a number of reasons e) Python is easy to install (assuming the use IDLE for editing) We switched to Pythong from Java a while ago. You can never overestimate how important "trivialities" such as ease of installation and natural-looking syntax (python's indentation) are to beginners. Andrej