A Beginner's Doubt

[augustofec]

Hello!
This is my first post in this group and the reason why I came across here is 
that, despite my complete lack of knowledge in the programming area, I received 
an order from my teacher to develop a visually interactive program, until 20th 
July, so we can participate in a kind of contest.

My goal is to learn and program it by myself, as good as the time allows me. 
That said, what I seek here is advice from people who definitively have more 
experience than me on topics like: is it possible to develop this kind of 
program in such a short amount of time? What kinds of aspects of Python should 
I focus on learning? What tutorials and websites are out there that can help 
me? What kind of already done packages are out there that I can freely use, so 
I do not need to create all the aspects of the program froms scratch?

It would be wise to give an abstract of the program. I made an information flux 
kind of graphic, but I do not know how to post it in here, so I'll use only 
words:

Full screen window -> Title and brief introductory text -> 3 Buttons (Credits) 
(Instructions) and (Start)

(Credits) -> Just plain text and a return button 
(Instructions) -> Just plain text and a return button
(Start) -> Changes the screen so it displays a side-menu and a Canvas.

Side menu -> X number of buttons (maybe 4 or 5)
Buttons -> Clicked -> Submenu opens -> List of images
-> Return button -> Back to side menu

Image in List of images -> When clicked AND hold mouse button -> Make copy
-> if: dragged to canvas -> paste the copy in place
-> if: dragged anywhere else -> delete copy and nothing 
happens

On canvas:
Image -> On click and drag can be moved
  -> Double click -> Opens menu -> Resize, Deform, Rotate, Color, 
Brigthness, Contrast, Color Curve, Saturation

Then, somewhere in cavas:

Save option -> Prompt for file and user's name
-> Prompt if users want printed copy or not -> Print
-> After saved, display random slideshow in other monitor, device 
or screen with the users' creations.

Thats basically the whole program. I've been studying Python for a week and 
half now, through: How to think like a Computer Scientist and Invent with 
Python and Pygame. I'm still at the very beggining, though, and I can't make 
much more than make some images appear on a Pygame screen in a menu-like style, 
with a patterned gap between them. No mouse interactions up to now.

I really appreciate your suggestions and help.
Thank you!
Augusto
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Re: A Beginner's Doubt

[augustofec]

Hello again!

Wow, I didn't  expect so many responses in a so short amount of time! You guys 
are amazing! All were very helpful, and after a quick read now I guess I can at 
least figure out a more focused path to achieve my goal.

I'm already checking the Tkinter tutorial, and as soon as I get a result I'll 
post it here to give a response :).

Yes, I forgot to mention some things: I have absolutely no knowledge about 
programming due to the fact that I'm a Visual Arts student, being my professor, 
accordingly, a Photography teacher with absolutely no idea of this field! He 
has, however, these kinds of 'multi-platform' projects, and since I was the 
fortunate student next to him when he came up with the idea, I got dragged into 
it.

The reason why I choose Python is that, once ago, I had some curiosity about 3D 
Modelling and game programming, which made me come across some texts praisng 
Python as an easy to learn and powerful language (despite the own concepts of 
an "easy" and "powerful" language being something quite vague for me :p).

That said, I would also like to apology for eventual typos and grammar errors 
since english is not my first language. By "side menu" I just imagined a menu 
in the left side of the screen, pretty much like the one in the Google groups 
page. 

And by copying the image from the menu to the canvas, when dragging it, I 
imagined a way to just place it, like a stamp, on the blank area where the user 
can in fact interact with it trought the editing tools (resize, rotate, color 
etc..).

Well, once again I thank you all and by now I'm gonna study!

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