I want to impress the boss.

[Peter Hansen]

Marty Backe wrote:
> 
> How do you possibly hope to convince anyone about using Python when
> you can't even use it? Don't rush these things or you'll just end up
> looking bad. Let yourself slowly mature with the language, using it
> for your own tools along the way. With time it'll become natural to
> use it for particular projects, and you'll have management support
> (within reason anyway).
> 
> What's the mad rush all about? Python isn't going anywhere.

Hmmm... let's see.  "Mad rush"?  Nothing in the poster's inquiry implies
a rush at all.  Perhaps you mistook the phrase "quick and dirty" as
implying he was in a rush.  It didn't look to me like he was really in a
rush, just in a void of information about COM (and what else is new?).

As for the comment "when you can't even use it?", I would point out that
the poster also does not imply that he can't use Python at all.  Perhaps
you didn't really read the question, which was really asking about
Python's COM support.  How many of us, even after using Python for
months or years, can answer his question?  You?  Me?  I know I can't. 
Couldn't you provide a helpful answer instead of a flame?

Mike Fletcher's helpful answer demonstrated that (a) most people in this
forum are willing to help, not criticize, (b) Python once again rules in
easily acting as "glue", (c) there's probably no need to "slowly mature"
with this language, since you can achieve great results (even in a mad
rush) if you set yourself a challenging goal.  Python is not your
father's scripting language.

Our first project with Python involved using it to control two signal
generators and a spectrum analyzer, and perform an "intermodulation
test" on an amplifier module, with the results shown in a little Tk
window.  This was in January.  If we'd "slowly matured" with Python we'd
probably still be wasting time writing 4DOS scripts and little C
utilities, rather than having all the fun we've had using Python for
challenging and useful projects since then.  Instead, we convincingly
demonstrated the utility of the language for non-trivial applications,
and gained an unreasonable level of management support early on.  So
there, too. :-)

-- 
Peter Hansen


> On Mon, 16 Oct 2000 04:15:05 GMT, chrisgarland at i-rocket.net wrote:
> 
> >I'm new to Python and am trying to get my company to adopt it as
> >a 'quick and dirty' glue tool.  I would like to assemble a
> >demonstration for my boss that would undeniably convince him.  What I'd
> >like to do is
> >get Python to:
> >- Ask the user what project they'd like updated.
> >- Open Visual Source Safe (VSS) and move the projects files into a
> >newly created directory.
> >- Run and record a checksum over every file in the directory.
> >- Open the project's Word document and have the appropriate table
> >update the checksums.
> >
> >I bought a copy of "Python Programming on Win32" which has helped speed
> >me along but I still need help.
> >- Where could I find a full set of commands that I can issue to Word
> >from Python?
> >- Is there a COM interface to VSS? or can I issue 'DOS prompt' like
> >commands to VSS to get it to release its files to me.
> >
> >Thanks, ANY help would be helpful.