[Tutor] New to Python

[Alan Gauld]

> Greetings all, I'm new to python and thought I'd pop in here for
advice.

Good decisions both :-)

> I've done object oriented design and programmed in perl, java, c++,
basic, etc.
> ...
> I'm curious about good tutorial websites and books to buy.

With your background the standard Python tutorial that comes with
the documentation should be ideal. Any extra questions just ask here.

There are lists of recommended books available in several places.
Personally I'd suggest trying the official docs until you know
where your interests lie, except....

> ...a prgram to script control another windows program.

...doing anything on Windows you owe it to yourself to buy Mark
Hammonds book "Python Programming on Win32"!

> The program doesn't have a published API so I'll probably need
> to locate memory addresses data fields and button routines.

Usually you can drive Windows programs indirectly by posting
windows messages to them. Thus sending a mouse click message
to a particular control will trigger the event handler etc.
You can use a Windows Spy program to moinitor the messages
sent in manual processing and replicate them programatically.
Its tedious and painful but more reliable than using memory
locations! You should download the ActiveState version of
Python too - it has several Windows biased goodies on top
of the official Python distro...

> Am I in way over my head for a Python beginner or does
> anybody have any advice for where to start poking around

Its ambitious and I'd try a few more simple things first but
its not too ridiculous given your C++ background.(Especially
if that includes Win32 C++)

Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web tutor
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld