What does it take to implement a chat system in Python (Not asking for code just advice before I start my little project)

[vikash agrawal]

Hi Aseem,

First of all great thought and all the best for the learning!


On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 10:06 AM, Aseem Bansal <asmbansal2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wanted to do a little project for learning Python. I thought a chat
> system will be good as it isn't something that I have ever done.
>
> I wanted to know what will I need? I think that would require me these
> 1 learn network/socket programming
>

Yes! sockets are the heart and soul of chat sys :-)


> 2 find a free server to host my chat server
>

You can use many, but I would suggest heroku for your free apps.


> 3 GUI development for clients
>
>
There are many python libraries Tkinter, PyQt, PyGtk, wxPython through
which you have GUI!


> -I wanted to know whether these are all that I would need or are there
> more things?
>

I think with above you are good to go!


> -Will I need to learn a web framework like Django?
>

That would really depend upon the type of chat application you are relying
upon. For a command line utility I think you can skip it, but if you wish
to have good-looking web version then yes, give Django a shot! But yes do
see other frameworks as well, just for finding out, learning and knowing
more :)


> -Will I need to learn something for database management like sql for
> handling people's account names and password?
>

Yes, it will be good decision to use DB to store names and chat histories
(with timestamp) and have your logs ready


>
> Is google appengine good for hosting the website or should I look up at
> django hosting websites?
>

Its good too :)


>
> Any other advice for me(a novice programmer)?
>

Make mistakes and fail early!

Python is awesome! But do try to learn the best practices. For eg, reverse
a string string[::-1] etc.



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Regards
~Vikash
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