Considering migrating to Python from Visual Basic 6 for engineering applications

[Oscar Benjamin]

On 18 February 2016 at 11:32, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 10:11 PM,  <wrong.address.1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Almost everything points positively for Python. Thanks to all of you who have responded. But please also tell me the disadvantages of Python. If I start using Python, I should be aware of the price I am paying. Speed is not a big problem for me, so an interpreted language is fine. Is packaging/installing very messy? Do I create dozens of files for a simple program calculating the sum of two numbers and product of two numbers in text boxes with one command to be clicked? Can I learn this much in the first couple of hours?
>>
>
> There are a few warts, particularly on Windows, as regards packaging
> and third-party modules. Anything that's written in pure Python is
> fairly easy; stuff that's written in C is sometimes a bit hairy. But
> that's a limitation on the "extended library" of PyPI, not the stuff
> that comes with Python itself.

For packaging/installing it really depends on what you're trying to
do. You have to understand that Python is used in many very different
ways in different environments and ecosystems so there just isn't a
single way of doing it.

It sounds to me as if all of your needs can be solved in pure Python
code possibly using some of the popular extension modules from PyPI.
In this case it's actually very easy to package/install. You can
package your code simply by zipping it up with a __main__.py file.
Someone who wants to install it will simply have a two step process:
first install Python (and possibly a few dependencies) and then obtain
the zip file with your code in it.

--
Oscar