BASIC vs Python

[Jeremy Bowers]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 13:53:15 +0000, Gregor Horvath wrote:
> OK. Then please schow me, how you can create a complex form with grids, 
> explorer like trees etc. in 2 minutes in standard python.
> 
> Or make any given standard python object accessible from MS Excel in 2 
> minutes.

Boa, gtkglade, or, I forget what the equivalent is for QT but I'm pretty
sure it has one.

Of course, I never use them because I find static forms anathema, and I
build my forms dynamically from metadata; more flexible, more powerful,
ultimately more maintainable. (I have *never* experienced the "Oh ****, I
have to change 25 forms in 5 minutes for the demo!" moment; I've only
heard about the horrors of programs with umpteen hundreds of distinct
static forms second hand.) Try *that* in VB. It can be done, but you lose
so fast it isn't even funny. 

One of the Facts of Life is that a sufficient quantitative change
*becomes* a qualitative change. Python makes enough things easier that you
do things that you'd never even imagine in VB.

I speak of VB 6, but knowing the language I'd still expect VB to be about
the worst .Net language to work in. BASIC bears only surface resemblance
to the BASIC of 30+ years ago but the philosophy hasn't changed. Static
forms are only a win if you need a program cranked out by one programmer
in less than a week; sadly, BASIC makes everything else so hard that few
people have realized this... but they have paid for it. Yes sir, you
always pay the piper.