Is Python like VB?

[scattered]

Tim Roberts wrote:
> "Mike Cox" <mikecoxlinux at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >As you may or may not know, Microsoft is discontinuing Visual Basic
in favor
> >of VB.NET and that means I need to find a new easy programming
language.  I
> >heard that Python is an interpreted language similar to VB.
>
> This statement is a little bit silly.  VB.NET is an interpreted
language
> which is practically indistinguishable from the old VB.  Why on earth
would
> you choose to reimplement your software in a different language,
rather
> than just do the simple version upgrade?
>

It is a bit OT for a python group, but calling VB.NET virtually
indistinguishable from VB isn't fair to either language. The
differences between them are so significant that many VB developers
have taken to calling VB.Net "visual fred" instead (
http://vb.mvps.org/vfred/breaks.asp ). VB.Net is both more powerful and
less convienent than VB.

You are right that VBA isn't being discontinued yet. My own interest in
learning python is to find a replacement for Excel VBA. I'm a
mathematician who likes to throw quick programs together for things
like statistical simulations. I liked the ability to get functioning
code quickly in VBA, together with the ability to easily generate
graphs of the results, etc., but I finally got tired of the slow speed
and verbose syntax. I'm hoping that Python (as packaged by Enthought
together with various numerical and graphing modules) will be an
appropriate replacement.

-scattered