What Programming Language?

~J~ · 11 Feb 2008 at 23:12

Another vote for Python. I don't use it for many Windows applications, for but backend server stuff and/or a quick test of code it's the mutts-knuts.

Was introduced to it a few years ago and never looked back, teaches you some real good programming practices and actually quite easy to get into.

Una · 11 Feb 2008 at 23:13

MarcLister said:
Ah right. Thanks again. So I would just call whatever GUI item I needed from Pygtk?

Look at that hello world GUI code I linked you. Read the comments they explain the basics of programming with python and gtk+. I would also read up on event driven programming so you understand the basics of event handling/event loops.

Python is nice for creating quick (gui) applications if you need something more substantial look at Java/C#. I tend to use python for prototyping my ideas before I port it into C if I need to. It certainly cuts down on development time if you want something quick. However, if you look at a desktop interface such as Gnome a lot of the GUI applications in that are written in python and perform adequate for the task at hand. It is about using the right tools for the job no one language is always the right choice.

MarcLister · 11 Feb 2008 at 23:32

Will do.

whitecrook · 12 Feb 2008 at 21:00

Una said:
Python is nice for creating quick (gui) applications if you need something more substantial look at Java/C#.

Any good pointers for python tuts on windows?
I'm doing more and more batch scripting, but I really need something just a bit more powerful with GUI would be nice.

Una · 12 Feb 2008 at 22:04

whitecrook said:
Any good pointers for python tuts on windows?
I'm doing more and more batch scripting, but I really need something just a bit more powerful with GUI would be nice.

Python is cross-platform (well so long as there is an interpreter for it). So long as you keep your code using non-platform specific features any tutorial will do. I used http://www.diveintopython.org/ but I guess you really need programming experience for it. I don't really know any windows specific ones, just read the API docs for os/system libraries stuff. Depends what you want to.. file i/o internals are abstracted away from so you can do it in a cross-platform way. If your wanting to fork processes and stuff.. im not 100% sure if that is hidden without having to use os specific stuff.