Python on the desktop

[Cliff Wells]

On 21 Dec 2001 00:53:17 -0800
sarat_venugopal at yahoo.com (Sarat Venugopal) wrote:
> guess if speed is the only issue, Python should suffice for a number
> of applications.

A lot more than you might expect.

>  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)

I am developing a commercial application in Python.  I figure if someone wants to go to the trouble of decompiling the byte-code, well, that's what copyright laws are for.  Even machine-binaries can be reverse-engineered (although it's more difficult), so I can't see this as being an overwhelming concern.  Besides, as long as they aren't reselling it, who really cares?
 
>  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).

I suggest taking a look at wxPython.  It is increasing in popularity (IMHO, it's the most probable contender for a true "standard" GUI for Python) and provides a common API across several platforms.  Additionally, it is based upon the native widget set of each platform so your applications look and feel like native apps.

> 
>  3. Does the community see Python as a full-fledged programming
> language?

An anecdote: a colleague and I were working on a network application concurrently, taking two different approaches.  He was going to implement it in C.  Having heard of Python, I decided to give it a try.  I downloaded it, read the standard docs and within a week had a working prototype, consisting of a multithreaded server and a basic GUI client.  He had a few routines he was trying to debug.


 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? 

Probably to the same extent C was used only for developing operating systems.

>  What do you people think?

This is the Python-list.  We all hate Python and secretly code in C/C++.  We only advocate Python in the hopes our competitors will adopt it and in doing so, destroy themselves because people using their applications will quickly realize that their first-to-market, easy-to-use, full-featured application wasn't written in a "real" programming language ;-)

> "Merry Christmas!"

You too.

-- 
Cliff Wells
Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726 x308
(800) 735-0555 x308