[Pythonmac-SIG] Learning Python on the Mac

[Steven Burr]

On Monday, July 2, 2001, at 02:26 PM, Mendelsohn, Danny wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I downloaded Python 2.1 a couple of weeks ago and have been goofing of 
> with
> it at work on my NT Workstation(blech!) I really like Python and wan't 
> to
> take it a step further and really try and learn the language. I use Mac 
> OS
> 9.1 at home and I've gone ahead and installed Python. I was going to 
> buy the
> o'reilly book by Mark Lutz. Does anyone know if I can apply what's in 
> that
> book to the Mac OS distribution of Python or are there glaring 
> differences?
>
> I guess what I'm most concerned about is the lack of a real command 
> line and
> having to deal with all that Mac Toolbox crap I've heard about.
>
> Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

I'm also making my way through Programming Python on a Mac, but I'm 
running OS X rather than 9.  It's a fantastic book, but it might not be 
the best choice for learning Python on OS 9.

The first third focuses on command-line system tools.  Much of what it 
covers--e.g. using command-line arguments, piping commands from one 
process to another--would probably be unusable on OS 9.

The second third covers GUI programming using Tkinter, which, as someone 
else has pointed out, doesn't work well on OS 9.   (Tkinter doesn't work 
at all in Aqua, but I'm getting around that by running the Tkinter 
examples in XDarwin.  See http://www.mrcla.com/XonX/ for more info about 
this.)

Btw, I also have an NT workstation at my job.  It makes telecommuting a 
very attractive option.  : )