There is of course a case to make for teach C , ASM or LISP first.
Trying to teach something like OO best practices will be lost on students if they haven't done enough programming to understand code complexity and why OO might be a useful paradigm.
Java is especially bad because you need to use the static keyword as well and the System.out object just to get "hello world" working
Disclaimer: I have not taken this course, neither am I a python Wizard.
Their stated goal:
"It aims to provide students with an understanding of the role computation can play in solving problems.
It also aims to help students, regardless of their major, to feel justifiably confident of their ability to write small programs that allow them to accomplish useful goals."
The point here is that teaching python is not the primary goal so if you are already a competent programmer you may find it more efficient to pick up a more reference style book.
However, I can imagine this course explaining principles such as turing machines, possibly some data structures and computational logic.
Thus I can imagine it might be useful to people who are not going to be programmers but need an appreciation for the type of work that a programmers might do and what is possible with a computer. So maybe a business person or a designer.
It might also be useful for self taught programmers who want an introduction to the more rigorous aspects of CS and a more formal way of thinking about their programs.
The class is more of an introduction to programming using Python than a class about learning Python the language. They learned some things like sorting, searching, testing, basic hash tables, etc. However, the primary reasons the course exists are to see let students explore Computer Science or because their major requires that they take either 6.00 (This course) or 1.00 (Same type of course, but in Java.)
If you want to learn Python and you're an experienced programmer, this class will take you maybe a night or two to breeze through. I would recommend taking other courses on OCW instead though with a more specific focus. If you want basic-intermediate algorithms, take 6.006. If you want low-level, 6.004 is a great introduction. (If you want advanced algorithms, buy CLRS and take 6.046).
tl;dr: 6.00 is more for people that have never programmed anything before, not to learn Python.
