Python on the desktop

[Dale Strickland-Clark]

sarat_venugopal at yahoo.com (Sarat Venugopal) wrote:

>Hi all,
>   I am fairly new to Python, in the sense that I haven't written
>anything substantial in it, although I have gone through all the major
>books so far. Coming from a strong, industrial strength C++
>application development background, let me make some quick
>observations. Needless to say, I am quite fascinated with the language
>primarily beacause of the strong emphasis on readability and
>maintainability of the code(Indentation, namespaces and the works). I
>guess if speed is the only issue, Python should suffice for a number
>of applications.
>
> 1. If python is to permeate the realm of commercial desktop (in
>whatever scope), we need the ability to convert it into a native
>executable(I have taken a look at some of the limited solutions
>available from individuals). I read somewhere, it may never be
>possible in Python. Can anyone throw light on this?
> Most commercial applications wouldn't want to expose the source code
>or even leave it as byte-code(Note: ActiveState has announced a
>compiler for Perl)

Actually, this is a non-issue. So long as people get a slick
installation routine that puts everything in the right place and
creates the appropriate menu entries or shortcuts to start it, most
people don't care if it's an exe or not.

We develop comercial apps in Python and not a single client has even
noticed, as far as I know.

>
> 2. Absence of a standard GUI, which really fits the major platforms.
>For a lanuage like Python, this is really a handicap. Would I do it in
>Tkinter on Windows? No way. I guess that's why there are so many other
>independent implementations out there. There is so much fragmentation
>of effort here(Analogous to KDE, GNOME,...on Linux).

Why do you need a 'standard GUI'? There's no standard GUI anywhere
else for anything. Most development environments these days have added
HTML to whatever they had before. 

However, for a really comprehensive GUI tool, take a look at wxPython.

> 3. Does the community see Python as a full-fledged programming
>language? I remember Zope being projected as the killer app for
>Python. Does that mean Python is going to hide behind web servers, be
>yet another general/web scripting language and probably a rapid
>prototyping tool? I guess the language deserves a better treatment.

Yes. We use it heavily.


--
Dale Strickland-Clark
Riverhall Systems Ltd