"Chris Carlen" <crcarl,,,,dia.gov> wrote: > Form 2: Use Python and PySerial and TkInter or wxWidgets. > > Pro: Cross-platform goal will likely be achieved fully. Have a > programmer nearby with extensive experience who can help. > Con: Must learn new language and library. Must possibly learn a > completely new way of thinking (OOP) not just a new language syntax. > This might be difficult. >
This is the way to go. - Trust me on this. When you describe your history, it is almost an exact parallel to mine. In my case, I have been doing real low level stuff (mostly 8031 assembler) since 1982 or so. And then I found python in a GSM module (Telit), and I was intrigued. I really appreciate your comments on OO - it parallels a lot of what I feel as there is a lot of apparent BS that does not seem to "do anything" at first sight. However- for the GUI stuff, there is an easily understood relationship between the objects and what you see on the screen - so its a great way of getting into OO - as far as people like you and me will go with it, which is not very far, as we tend to think in machine instructions... And for what its worth - you can programme assembler-like python, and it also works. The best thing to do is just to spend a few days playing with say Tkinter. I use a reference from the web written by John W Shipman at New Mexico Tech - it is succinct and clear, and deserves more widespread publicity. Google for it - I have lost the link, although I still have the pdf file. You will also find the interactive prompt that you get when you type python at a command prompt invaluable - it lets you play with and debug small code snippets so that you can learn as you go along - it really speeds up the whole learning process, and makes it almost painless. All this talking is just wasting time - you could have had your first frame up on the screen already, with a blank canvas, ready for drawing. It really goes that quick, once you start. So the answer to the title question is: Yes - a low level programmer can learn OOP, and its in fact easier than it looks, as almost all the heavy lifting has been done for you by others. - Hendrik -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
