Boss wants me to program

[Thomas Bartkus]

"phil" <phillip.watts at anvilcom.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1002.1119975443.10512.python-list at python.org...
>
> >
> > Theres even a version of Python for .NET, called IronPython. The major
> > advantage of this is that you get to program in Python, which I can
> > tell you from experience is a lot more enjoyable and pain-free than C,
> > C++, Fortran, or Java (and, I would highly suspect, VB and C#). But
> > apparently the available GUI builders aren't as good for Python -
> > having not done a whole lot of GUI building in general, I'll leave this
> > for more experienced people to judge.
> >
>
>  From 30 years of application development experience I will tell you
> NOT HUMBLY, that Python is easily the most productive, the most
> read-write and the most elegant of any of the above.  Handsdown
> better than Java, the runner up in that group.

Agreed!

> Now let me explain somthing about "GUI buiders" or IDE's, from some
> experience, Visual Studio being the worst.
>
> The IDE takes a picture of what they think you want to do, they then ask
> you some questions about the components, and they afford you the
> opportunity to modify the properties of the objects.
> Then they store all this info in tables and build code at
> buildtime.  The tables are rarely documented well and sometimes
> have very confusing layouts.  So you usually go back to the
> IDE to make changes and if the changes are compilcated and there
> are interconnected events to consider, you better know what you are
> doing.
>
> I consider it a nightmare of hiding code from the programmer.
> The IDE is taking on the burden of a couple layers of abstraction
> and the IDE ain't that smart.

"A nightmare of hiding code from the programmer"  Hmmhh!

Well, it certainly does hide a lot of code!
More precisely, it removes the need for a lot of hand coding work that
should be automated.

Do I want to spend 95% of my coding/debugging efforts on a consistent user
interface or would I rather spend the bulk of my efforts on the business
problem that needs solving and just *have* an attractive and consistent user
interface.

> You would be wise, if you choose Python to choose Tkinter or WxWindows
> and learn the properties of a radio button and how to trigger events.
> Writing simple GUIs is not that hard.  Then after you know what is
> going on behind the scenes, a BOA Constructor will not be as
> mysterious or dangerous.

Writing simple user interfaces may not be hard but "simple" user interfaces
rarely serve well.  More to the point is that programs are much better when
they have idiot proof (and idiot easy!) user interfaces where the programmer
hasn't the need to cope with the 1001 ways a user can louse up input or need
to write an encyclopeadia of documentation on how one interacts with his
particular program.

You are quite correct to point out how much better it is to know what is
going on behind the scenes.  But heck, once you know how to extract square
roots - you need to let the computer do it!

GUI interfaces should be the same deal!
Thomas Bartkus