making windows apps

[Peter Hansen]

Zach Shutters wrote:

>     I am new to python and working my way through the van Rossum tutorial. I 
> am cursios though about if you can program windows with python? 

Yes, certainly.  If you follow the newsgroup, you'll often see
discussions of various ways of doing GUI programming, including
one that was just started and to which I just posted a small
sample program just now.

> I know I can search google but i figured I 
> would see what some people who know the language well would recommend.

Well, there's always people here willing to answer questions, but
it is *really* appreciated when people do take the time to check
with Google first.  For example, it would easily have found you
this page http://www.metaslash.com/brochure/tutorial/ or this
one http://www.python.org/doc/faq/gui.html.

>     One last thing, in order for a program I write in python to run on 
> someones computer, they have to have the python interpreter installed? 

Yes, at some point, unless you use Jython to turn the program into
Java .class files in which case they need the Java runtime
installed instead.

> And 
> if so, wouldn't most people not have it installed since they wouldn't be 
> programming in it. 

Most people who are interested in distributing their Python programs
either don't mind having their users download Python (it's trivially
easy to do) or they package up their program with tools such as py2exe,
which create executables that bundle the interpreter.  They also
generally use other tools such as InnoSetup to build nice installers.
The end users cannot tell the difference and don't have a clue what
language their application is programmed in, so you shouldn't worry
about this issue much.

 > Hopefully no one will get pissed off and give some
> smart ass comment about how stupid my question is (sorry but most of the 
> time thats what I get when I post in a newsgroup lol)

This newsgroup is different.  On the other hand, it is *really*
appreciated when people take the time to research a little
themselves, so it's a good thing you are doing the tutorial
now.  Consider also reading through the FAQ at the www.python.org
site (skim it quickly the first time, as you won't understand
many of the entries, but you'll remember some of them anyway and
can go back later when you know more and you'll understand much
more of them).  You might also keep Google Groups in mind, so
that you can quickly check the archives for this newsgroup when
you are thinking of asking questions in the future.  It's *really*
appreciated. ;-)

-Peter