Sandy S writes:
I just purchased 3 copies of "Python for Kids" so that my 2 sons and I can begin our quest! Anyway I hate to bug you with this but we just downloaded the latest version of the Python suite and the –n switch for IDLE startup has a message about "being deprecated since version 3.4". Is there another startup scheme that we should use instead? Also what do you recommend, in addition to the fine book, to enhance the learning process? My sons are middle-school age and very math/science savvy. I have a hardware engineering background but no programming to speak of.
The -n switch is deprecated, but not yet removed. So it still works fine with that switch for the moment. I did see some discussion about it on one of the Python mailing lists (forget which now) but I don’t think there was a conclusion about what happens in the future with something like IDLE and the use of tkinter (perhaps someone else reads this and lets me know - in which case, I'll post their message here). In any case, safe to use.
In terms of enhancing the learning process, I'd say once they've gone through the book (at least covered the basics of programming) picking a project is a good idea. Static learning is fine up to a point (even working through examples in the book), but what really cements the learning process is finding something you actually want to work on. It doesn't matter what sort of project, game or otherwise. As long as it's something your boys are interested in (also think about things like the raspberry pi and robotics and so on — since you've got a hardware background that'll be a useful crossover).
Hope that helps.