On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 10:11 PM, <wrong.addres...@gmail.com> wrote: > Almost everything points positively for Python. Thanks to all of you who have > responded. But please also tell me the disadvantages of Python. If I start > using Python, I should be aware of the price I am paying. Speed is not a big > problem for me, so an interpreted language is fine. Is packaging/installing > very messy? Do I create dozens of files for a simple program calculating the > sum of two numbers and product of two numbers in text boxes with one command > to be clicked? Can I learn this much in the first couple of hours? >
There are a few warts, particularly on Windows, as regards packaging and third-party modules. Anything that's written in pure Python is fairly easy; stuff that's written in C is sometimes a bit hairy. But that's a limitation on the "extended library" of PyPI, not the stuff that comes with Python itself. Your simple example could easily be a single file. Python tends to eschew boilerplate; its motto comes from Baloo - look for the bare necessities of life. For a first couple of hours, I would recommend working at the console or in Idle, rather than creating a GUI; a window takes a bit of extra effort (plus you have choices in how to do that), so just learn the language first. But you could easily advance to building a GUI within your first day of learning Python, if that's the direction you want to go. The biggest disadvantage of Python is that, in a number of ways, it surprises people. Significant whitespace bugs a lot of experienced programmers (and some tools, too), and there are a few other ways that you may find a team of people revile against it. But if you can deal with the social aspects, it's a solid language. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
