Python as alternative to Visual Basic

[Nelson Minar]

Good questions and nice research.

I was surprised at how many Windows-specific elements were available
in Python. Here are some notes from me writing a toy system tray app:
  http://www.nelson.monkey.org/~nelson/weblog/tech/good/pythonWindows.html

One thing you should look into is IronPython, the new Python-on-.NET
implementation. It's still pretty early on in development, so may not
be appropriate for your commercial needs. But it's quite interesting.

> The software package I'm developing will make calls to Excel and
> Access and requires a very usable GUI for users who are not
> particularly computer literate.

You can learn a lot from a day or two of prototyping. Try out a bit of
COM integration, build a user form using wxWindows or PyQt. See if you
like it.