Python, ActivePython, wxPython, etc

[chris liechti]

"Timo Labrenz" <Timo.Labrenz at breisnet-online.de> wrote in 
news:9jkao2$oekti$1 at ID-51354.news.dfncis.de:

> First, sorry for the very newbish question :)
> I've been very unhappy with some of the smaller applications I use 
> lately, so I decided to take over control and start learning to 
> program. Python seemed to be the right language to start with and 

python is a good language to start...:-)

> http://www.crosswinds.net/~agauld/ is a great help so far. As I looked 
> for a 'from scratch' tutorial in this newsgroup, I found that there are 
> many toolkits, editors, GUIs and so on for Python available. And to be 
> honest, the original Python (2.1.1) package with IDLE seems a little 
> weak compared to other packages I've seen. The question is, which one 

IDLE is a nice development tool is has a source editor with highlighting, 
an iteractive window a debuger... But if you're using Windows you will 
probably like PythonWin (ActiveState) more because its more in the windows 
style.

> to use? I'm an absolute beginner (some experience in gfa-basic from a 
> long, long time ago ;)) and I want to write small, usefull programs 
> that should work on Windows and maybe, but just maybe, could be 
> compiled in Linux. Those programs are mainly administration tools or 
> maybe, if I get better, things like a newsreader or -server, nothing 
> where big graphics other than boxes and schedules are required. (Btw, 
> Python and MySQL is no problem, is it?) I know it's vague question and 

SQL modules are around but i dont needed them until now.

> a matter of taste, but where is the difference between all those 
> packages and which one could be the best arranged GUI for a beginner. 

i think that there is most coverage on tkinter. this is aloso the "native" 
gui for python as is is in the distribution and so doesn't need any addons.
if you want you software to run on a workstation/pc where only a plain 
python installation is available - this is your choice. its also the one 
that is available on most platforms (i think)


> wxPython looks quite nice to me, but is it good?

i am using wxWindows. the gui looks like native windows buts its portable 
to linux. i just found it a bit more difficult to get into it compared to 
tkinter (some docs are only from the c++ library and you have to guess how 
that is implemented using python). once you've got used to it it's 
definetly great.

> Oh, I almost forgot. How is the comatibility between those toolkits and 
> the original Python? Could I even update such a kit with the newest 
> version of Python?

if you mean toolkit for GUIs: they are not compatible. some ideas and 
stuctures look often similar but use other objects and other methods.

you also need them to be compiled for your python version as most of them 
use a library (DLL) and are therefore written in C. That's also true for 
all other extension modules that are written in C. Of course modules that 
have only python code in them are no problem at.

if you mean python from diffrent providers like ActiveState. they are 100% 
precent compatible with the python.org version. just don't use some 
extension modules that are not standard to python and you will be fine.

as an example the win32all package is included in ActiveState's 
distribustion but its not standard python. altough you can download it for 
the python.org version it is one extra step you have to do. and it's not 
cross-platform but thats always module dependant.

> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Timo
> 

PS: your post is one long text without any paragraphs. i think most people 
get tired to read it just when they see it.. don't post too many questions 
in a message and make a clear distinction between them and you should get 
more answers.

-- 
chris <cliechti at mails.ch>