A beginning beginner's question about input, output and . . .

[Michael F. Stemper]

On 11/01/2021 14.37, DonK wrote:

> I've installed Python 3.7, the PyCharm IDE and watched some Youtube
> tutorials

I would suggest that instead of watching tutorials, you open up your IDE
and start writing stuff. Get an introductory python book (I used the
O'Reilly _Introducing Python_), start at the beginning, and type in each
example. Then, tweak it to see what happens.

> I've seen some Python gui frameworks like Tkinter, PyQt, etc. but they
> look kinda like adding a family room onto a 1986 double wide mobile
> home, and they look even more complicated than creating a GUI from
> scratch in C++ with a message loop, raising events . . .

I haven't really got my head around GUI programming myself. I tried to
write one with tkinter based on on-line examples, but didn't have any
conceptual framekwork, so it didn't work too well. I saw in a post here
that there are actually books on it, so I might pick one up and try
again.

> So, what do you folks use Python for?

Since you asked:

Various command-line utilities, including:
- comparing the contents of two directories
- ad-hoc linear regression
- validation of DTDs
- sanity check of nesting symbols in TeX files
- ad-hoc plotting

Maintaining and querying of data bases:
- five-minute values of local temperatures
- Action items for an organization of which I'm secretary
- my own to-do list
- non-isomorphic groups that have isomorphic character tables

Modeling of electric power systems:
- load behavior in response to conservation load reduction
- generator and governor response to system load
- economic dispatch of generators, including those with non-monotonic 
incremental cost curves
(last two are very much works in progress)

Mathematics:
- experiments with number theory and combinatorics
- composition of permutations of a set
- properties of minimal paths through a C_m x C_n lattice
- generating tikz commands for geometric diagrams in TeX documents
- unstructured and uneducated exploration of Conway's Game of Life

-- 
Michael F. Stemper
2 Chronicles 19:7