[Pythonmac-SIG] a beginner's list

[Bill Janssen]

Charles, I love the fact that you've taken the time to think through
this!  Hurrah!

However...

> Somebody who comes idly to the idea of programming in Python, and  
> finds the pythonmac page, will be happy if the result is an  
> afternoon's work that ends in a "hello world," possibly in a window.  
> Using my own arbitrary preferences, that would entail:
> 
> 1. downloading & installing Bob's framework
> 2. downloading & installing TigerPython24Fix
> 3. adding /usr/local/bin to the PATH
> 4. downloading & installing wxPython
> 5. downloading & installing [fill in name of IDE]
> 6. starting to browse how-to-program sites and writing some bits


I think this is a wonderful example of the mindset that's wrong with
the current situation.  An afternoon's work?  Who would want to do
that just to fool around, when Python is *pre-installed* on the Mac?

Who wants to open windows?  Why is a GUI automatically necessary?

And if it is, all you need is already there on 10.4, in three minutes:

1)  Click on Applications/Utilities/Terminal.

2)  In the terminal window, enter the following line:

% pythonw

3)  You will see a prompt ">>>".  At the prompt, enter the following line:

>>> print "Hello, World!"

and you will see "Hello, World!" written back to you.

4)  To do this in a window, enter the following lines at the ">>>" prompt:

>>> import wx
>>> app = wx.PySimpleApp()
>>> frame = wx.Frame(None, -1, "Hello World").Show(1)
>>> app.MainLoop()

That's it!

Maybe with a pointer to the wxPythonWiki getting started page (which I
stole this code from):

http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/Getting_20Started#head-bc009992ceb90dddb7eb3db953e25d1792da2cdd

*Don't* deprecate the Apple pre-installed Python!  Rejoice in it!  And
then hint that even better things are available in 2.4.x...

Once a newbie decides to get serious about Python, *then* they can
think about upgrading their installation.

Bill