theres an irc with 2000 python devs ready for instant feedback. it's like a live chat stackoverflow for python or better.
given the python community imo there's no reasons for beginners to shy from libraries. ESPECIALLY python libraries and frameworks, e.g. django is magic and can easily be learned/used by a dev who only has basic python knowledge
Magic impedes learning. Magic is great when you know enough to be able to peek behind the curtain when you need to. But abstractions leak, and magic abstractions more than most.
Absolutely it is. I'm a believer that learning programming with a high level interpreted language with a weak type system is a disadvantage in the long run.
That doesn't mesh with people who want to do something valuable out the gate, which is fair enough. But I've seen so many people start with the "easier" path and run into a brick wall they can't surmount later and just give up. It makes me sad to watch every time.
EDIT: Substituted "learning a high level" with "learning programming with a high level"
I wonder if the transition is the problem, or if some people just have difficulty with the low level stuff, regardless of previous experience. I can't say I have data, but from my college colleagues, I don't remember the people having trouble with, say, pointers being mostly the ones who already programmed in Python or JavaScript.
That's a good point, and it might indeed be a self-selection kind of thing. I'm not an expert and I don't have the data there.
But I don't even mean making a transition, you can do nothing but Python or JS and still hit the wall. Because eventually you'll need to understand the lower level concepts to do better, even with higher level languages and libraries.
It's the reason that learning to program, and program well, is not 100x faster than it was 50 years ago, despite all the claimed benefits of this or that language or framework or whatever. Eventually you need to know what's going on under the hood.
Also worth noting that I primarily use JS in my day to day work, and it does what I need it to do. Not saying super high level languages aren't useful, just that they're not a good starting point IMO.
I think leaky abstractions are not really something to worry about when you're learning. Maintaining interest while learning, especially at first when everything is strange and new, strikes me as a much bigger problem. Magic addresses that.
Sure, but when you encounter a leaky abstraction someone has to pull back the curtain for you and help you get past it. Magic inevitably has brick walls behind the curtains.
given the python community imo there's no reasons for beginners to shy from libraries. ESPECIALLY python libraries and frameworks, e.g. django is magic and can easily be learned/used by a dev who only has basic python knowledge