A few questions

[Dave Baum]

In article <mailman.7945.1179719534.32031.python-list at python.org>,
 jay <jyoung79 at kc.rr.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm totally new to Python and was hoping someone might be able to  
> answer a few questions for me:
> 
> 1.  What are your views about Python vs Perl?  Do you see one as  
> better than the other?

I introduced Python into my group at work and it has for the most part 
supplanted Perl.  For short scripts Python tends to be a lot more 
readable than Perl.  Python also scales better, allowing us to tackle 
some larger projects with Python than we would have attempted with Perl.
 
However, a lot of this depends on your current skill with the languages 
and the kind of project you will be working on.  A Perl guru is going to 
be more productive with Perl than with Python.  Text processing programs 
are likely to be more concise in Perl than Python.  However, as a 
general purpose programming language I think Python is an excellent 
choice.

> 2.  Is there a good book to start with while learning Python?  I'm  
> currently reading 'Python Essential Reference' by David M. Beazley.   
> So far it looks like a pretty good book, but would like more  
> tutorials to work with (I've also been reading through the tutorials  
> at 'python.org' which has some excellent stuff!).

"Learning Python" is a good book for getting started, although it is a 
bit dated by now.  It might not be quite what you are looking for with 
respect to tutorials, so I'd recommend looking at a copy before buying 
it.

> 3.  Currently, I write most of my code with Xcode (on the Mac  
> platform) using Applescript.  This gives me GUI capabilities.  Is  
> there anything you'd recommend that I could use for Python that would  
> give me a GUI interface?  I'd like this to be able to work for both  
> the Mac and Windows platforms.  I've been reading a little about  
> 'Claro Graphics Toolkit' and 'PyGUI'... would you recommend either of  
> those?  I'll be writing code on a Mac so I need something that will  
> run on that system.

Tkinter is the easiest way to get started with Python GUI programming 
because it is part of the default python distribution.  However, I 
prefer wxPython for GUI development.  You'll have to install a few extra 
pieces, but in the end wxPython does a better job of being "pythonic" 
for the programmer, and resulting in native look and feel for the user.  
"wxPython in Action" is an excellent book for learning about wxPython.


Dave