python vs java

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Aravind wrote:
> hi,
> 
> some of my friends told that python and java are similar in the idea of
> platform independency.

Well, not quite IMHO.

Java treats the problem by taking the autistic attitude of pretending
the underlying platform doesn't exists - which can be a major PITA.

Python is much more pragmatic, and can even offer really strong
integration with the platform *without* sacrifying portability - the
core language is platform-independant and tries to help you wrinting
platform-independant code (cf the os and os.path modules), and
platform-specific stuff is usually isolated in distinct packages with a
BIG caution note on it !-)

> Can anyone give me an idea as i'm a newbie to java
> and python but used to C++. My idea is to develop an app which can run both
> in windows and linux.

With a GUI ? If so, you probably want to check out wxPython or PyGTK
(wxPython will also buy you MacOS X IIRC, and wil perhaps be easier to
install on Windows).

Else (web, command-line, what else ?), you should not have any
particular problem as long as you avoid using platform-specific packages
and always use the portability helper features (ie os.path etc).

Coming from C++, you'll probably need a few days to grasp Python's
object model and idioms (Python looks much less like a dumbed-down C++
than Java), but my bet is that you'll be productive *way* sooner with
Python, and *much* more productive.

My 2 cents,
-- 
bruno desthuilliers
python -c "print '@'.join(['.'.join([w[::-1] for w in p.split('.')]) for
p in 'onurb at xiludom.gro'.split('@')])"