But then, we have an ongoing transition to 3.0, and it turns out the turtle module from 2.6 is "an extended reimplementation" that is "(nearly) 100% compatible" with the prior version included in 2.5. This is probably not a problem for textbooks being written today, but it does make me wonder how durable an actual source code listing in any 'modern' language would be. How long would the average code listing remain usable?
It'll remain usable as long as previous distributions of python are available for download.
PyGame is quite a fun resource for learning programming, there's something there about pressing play and seeing your code changes translated into direct visual feedback which is particularly appealing.
The previous distribution of python will only remain usable as long as it installs and runs on whatever machine you're using.
PyGame might be fun, but I don't really see it as a true beginner's environment. It's a serious library, so it takes a lot of initialization, requires flip() calls, and runs in event-oriented style. It's also not included in the standard library.
In fact, for graphics, anything that doesn't create its own window and give you calls like drawPoly/drawEllipse is probably not simple enough to approach AmigaBASIC or QBASIC.
But then, we have an ongoing transition to 3.0, and it turns out the turtle module from 2.6 is "an extended reimplementation" that is "(nearly) 100% compatible" with the prior version included in 2.5. This is probably not a problem for textbooks being written today, but it does make me wonder how durable an actual source code listing in any 'modern' language would be. How long would the average code listing remain usable?