Extremely Newbie wants to program and pleads to be pointed in the right direction

[Gustavo Cordova]

> 
> In the olden days I played around with BASIC
> just for fun, writing trivial games and making patterns move on the 
> screen.
> 

Ahhh... I remember my C64... *snif*

>
> Can I do that sort of thing with Python?
>

Sure you can, but Python doesn't have any "native" graphics
mode, it uses an external module available in many
distributions though.

> 
> I've at last got a new machine, running XP Home.
> Will this be OK?
> Or would it be wiser to use my old 200MMX?
> 

Hmmm... well... I'll not comment on the wisdom
of having/using WinXP, but yes, you can use that
without any problem.

Use the old 200MMX to play around with linux
though, and you'll have lots of fun.

>
> Before I start wrestling with Python - and with thinking - and with 
> making my brain hurt - is Python the best language for this sort of 
> play?
> Would Java be better?
> Will I be able to make a ball bounce around inside a box etc.?
> 

Ohh, definitely. Python lends itself to the "playing" mode of
learning just fine. Better than Perl, MUCH better than Java.

Since you're going to want to do some animation and
bouncy graphics stuff, look for a module called "PyGame"
(I think) which supports this stuff.

I truly don't know if PyGame is available for Windows,
I do know it's available for Linux.

It's a module which has all that bouncy graphics stuff.
Damn... I wish I'd had python back in my Amiga days...

*snif*

>
> Please be gentle!  I'm not a rocket scientist - but rather just an 
> ordinary bloke who's really quite interested in how computers 
> work and who would like to edge sidelongly towards greater technological 
> intimacy!
>

Don't worry. Thankfully, Python isn't rocket surgery,
nor brain science.

Even the "brain twisting stuff" which the oldsters like
to throw around isn't that hard, once you lose respect
for classes and types as "special objects" and start
treating them as ordinary objects.

>
> -- 
> Chris
>

Good luck Chris, you picked a nice language to play
around with.

In case you want to do a bit more than only animation
and playing around, check out a package called Blender;
it's a 3D and animation designer, with scripting and
other game stuff thrown in.

It's EXCELLENT, the site (google is your friend) has
some examples and demos, really nice, very cool.

All scripting is done with python, so you can imbue your
onscreen objects with behaviours and other stuff; you
can use Python in almost all parts of the action, really.

Good luck. :-)

-gustavo