Advice for a novice on making ambitious cross-platform GUI app

[crystalattice]

Chelonian wrote:
> Can Python *alone* produce something like what I've described?  Or
> would I have to have some parts written in C?  Or is Python really not
> best-suited to these needs?

As already mentioned, Python is capable of doing nearly any type of
program.  As long as you don't need low-level functionality (like
manual memory manipulation or device drivers) it should be fine.  With
computers nowadays, I don't think the speed hit will be that bad, but
YMMV.

> Is using SPE with wxGlade a good choice?  What about Boa Constructor?

I use SPE for all of my coding and have very few complaints.  I've
never used Boa so I don't know how well it will do.  One of the reasons
I chose SPE is because of the integrated wxGlade; because it's still in
beta, SPE sometimes crashes when using it so be aware of that.

> Is it something one person could do over the course of a year or so,
> working say 10 hours a week on it?  Or is this really out of reach of
> anyone other than a hardcore programmer or even a team of them?

Given enough time, one person can do nearly any programming task.  If
you have a deadline to complete it, then you probably really want
someone with more experience to help you.  If you don't mind reading
books and learning as you go, then go for it.  I'm working on making an
RPG from scratch and I'm the only one doing it, but I'm learning a lot
and just keep asking questions.

> If I write it using Python 2.5 and wxPython, do I have to use py2app or
> something to create an executable and necessary library files so it
> will run on Mac?  (Because of wxPython's libraries, which the Mac
> won't have?).

If you want to make an executable for the Mac, then you'll need py2app.
 If you want it to run like a normal Python script, then the user can
just call it from the command line.