Types, Cython, program readability

[sturlamolden]

On 16 Mar, 16:58, bearophileH... at lycos.com wrote:

> I think lot of Win users (computational biologists?), even people that
> know how to write good Python code, don't even know how to install a C
> compiler.

If you don't know how to install a C compiler like Microsoft Visual
Studio, you should not be programming computers anyway.

> I meant a compiler that spits out the final executable a person can
> click on.

You don't click on compiled Python C extensions. You call it from your
Python code.


> >Being written in pure Python, Pyrex is equally easy to use on Windows and Linux.<
>
> Or maybe equally difficult :-) The computational biology students I
> was with think PythonWin is "easy" enough (or take a look at the
> "Processing" Java-like language user interface). Lowering entry
> difficulties is positive. Can things be made simpler for newbies?

Being a computational biologist myself (PhD), I do not agree. Any
student smart enough to program Python can learn to use disttools or
even a command prompt (whether it's bash or DOS does not matter).
There is no way of avoiding the keyboard when your are programming
computers, except for some strange drag-and-drop languages like
LabView. The way I see it, using a C compiler should be a part of the
general education for any student in computational sciences.

Java is not less complicated. It requires compilation step as well
(javac and possibly gnumake). Students are either forced to learn an
IDE (Eclispe og NetBeans), or deal with the command prompt.