Beginner advice

[Gary Herron]

Paul Scott wrote:
> I have been tasked to come up with an audio recorder desktop (cross
> platform if possible - but linux only is OK) that:
>
> 1. records a lecture as an MP3 file (pymedia?)
> 2. Provides a login form for server credentials
> 3. Uploads via XMLRPC (pyxmlrpclib) to the server as a podcast
>
> I have been working on this (having never really worked with Python
> before) for the past 24 hours or so, and would just like to get some
> feedback on the direction that I am taking if possible.
>
> 1. Is pymedia an active project? Should I use something else?
>   
Pymedia seems to have gone unmaintained for several years now.  I'd 
suggest looking at AVbin http://code.google.com/p/avbin.  It provides a 
nice interface to code that is *very* actively maintained.  Even though 
I've not used it, it is maintained by someone who I do trust to do a 
good job.
> 2. GUI design - I am using glade designer and pyGTK. Good choice?
>
> 3. pyXMLRPClib - active? Something better?
>
> 4. I see that there are literally thousands of somewhat external looking
> libraries for python, I presume that there is some way of bundling all
> the deps into a single source and then compiling? or otherwise packaging
> them all (this software will be for academia, so difficult installs are
> out!)
>
> 5. Editor - I am using Eric (which I quite like), any advice on IDE's?
>
> Any help would be massively appreciated! Python looks like a *really*
> easy and powerful language (hey, I managed to do a desktop application
> in a few hours and I am a botanist!) and I would like to do a lot more
> with it. I have a PHP background (taught myself that also) so C syntax
> is almost like my native tongue :) but Python syntax seems just as easy,
> if not easier!
>
> I am still going through Mark Pilgrims' tutorials (dive into ones) and
> am slowly getting the hang of things, so if these questions seem inane,
> please do excuse me and feel free to tell me to RTFM!
>
> Thanks
>
> --Paul
>
>
>   
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