3D graphics programmers using Python?

[Arthur]

>I'm curious at what point various 3D guys think using Python is a "good
>trade" for their problems.

Not sure I'm fully equipped to join this discussion, as the choice I made
happen to have been between Python and Java - because those are the
languages I am equipped to deal with.

But I am not sure why we are choosing.

I wrote PyGeo - http://home.netcom.com/~ajs - using the VPython
http://www.vpython.org C++ OpenGL based rendering 3d graphics library -
which creates and exposes geoemtric primitives to Python.

PyGeo was developed for the visualization of geometric concepts of
projective geometry, and then the geometry of complex numbers.  Its
architecture was evolutionary - as it was built to serve a educational need
(first off, my own), and there was no way, I don't believe, to architecture
it all up front.  Refractoring on top of refractoring was the process. I am
not sure there is any way to convince you that the process could not have
been as pleasureable or (I think) successful if I was working purely in C++
or Java.

I can say, I think, that the ability to create and access heterogenous lists
of geometric objects in Python - as compared to the process to obtain
similar functionality in Java - was a crucial difference that made the work
I was (and am) doing more straightforward and therefore more rapid with
Python.

True, I don't think a pure Python solution would have been practical. But
why is that one's choice?

And there are always speed advantages I could pick up by porting more to
C++.

Couple of years into playing with this project, and at some point - maybe a
year or two from now - I will make the decision as to whether I am
prototyping or developing.

Art