I came from a VB/VBA environment before using Python. My experience has been that Python has a lot more free, pre-coded tools within its community to do the sort of things I do in my job (geometric algorithms, date-time functions, processing and accessing lists of items, scientific programming, etc., etc.). The main strength of VB6 was its ease in dragging and dropping stuff to make a graphical user interface (GUI). The main strength of VBA is that a lot of people know it and it interfaces with the Excel spreadsheet software nicely (except when Windows is acting up, but that's another story). Tkinker took some getting used to. I've dabbled with wxPython a bit. After an initial learning curve, the tools aren't that hard to use, and they both have modules for pre-made widgets (window items) like PMW for Tkinter.
The module system, I find, is almost always a step up from dealing with VB/VBA's DLL's. "DLL hell" is real, especially for someone coming into a programming environment for the first time. My last point is a bit controversial. You will get smarter faster and cheaper in the Python community. It's not that there aren't smart people in the (classic) VB community. It's just that there are a lot of people in that community that never programmed in any other language, people that think that learning a Unix based system is too much to ask from an employer, people that believe that the GUI is the quality center and most critical part of the program, and that the backend is an afterthought. I wish I were being cynical or exaggerating, but I'm not. Hanging out around the Python community will make you a better VB, dotNet (C#), or C++ programmer, even if you go with one of those as your language of choice. My 2 cents. Carl Trachte "gord" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > As a complete novice in the study of Python, I am asking myself where this > language is superior or better suited than others. For example, all I see in > the tutorials are lots of examples of list processing, arithmetic > calculations - all in a DOS-like environment. > > What is particularly disappointing is the absence of a Windows IDE, > components and an event driven paradigm. How does Python stand relative to > the big 3, namely Visual C++, Visual Basic and Delphi? I realize that these > programming packages are quite expensive now while Python is free (at least > for the package I am using - ActivePython). > > Please discuss where Python shines. > Gord > > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
