In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, jay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi, > > I'm totally new to Python and was hoping someone might be able to > answer a few questions for me: > > 1. What are your views about Python vs Perl? Do you see one as > better than the other? I introduced Python into my group at work and it has for the most part supplanted Perl. For short scripts Python tends to be a lot more readable than Perl. Python also scales better, allowing us to tackle some larger projects with Python than we would have attempted with Perl. However, a lot of this depends on your current skill with the languages and the kind of project you will be working on. A Perl guru is going to be more productive with Perl than with Python. Text processing programs are likely to be more concise in Perl than Python. However, as a general purpose programming language I think Python is an excellent choice. > 2. Is there a good book to start with while learning Python? I'm > currently reading 'Python Essential Reference' by David M. Beazley. > So far it looks like a pretty good book, but would like more > tutorials to work with (I've also been reading through the tutorials > at 'python.org' which has some excellent stuff!). "Learning Python" is a good book for getting started, although it is a bit dated by now. It might not be quite what you are looking for with respect to tutorials, so I'd recommend looking at a copy before buying it. > 3. Currently, I write most of my code with Xcode (on the Mac > platform) using Applescript. This gives me GUI capabilities. Is > there anything you'd recommend that I could use for Python that would > give me a GUI interface? I'd like this to be able to work for both > the Mac and Windows platforms. I've been reading a little about > 'Claro Graphics Toolkit' and 'PyGUI'... would you recommend either of > those? I'll be writing code on a Mac so I need something that will > run on that system. Tkinter is the easiest way to get started with Python GUI programming because it is part of the default python distribution. However, I prefer wxPython for GUI development. You'll have to install a few extra pieces, but in the end wxPython does a better job of being "pythonic" for the programmer, and resulting in native look and feel for the user. "wxPython in Action" is an excellent book for learning about wxPython. Dave -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
