Python

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Comment by Sam Joseph on October 18, 2011 at 2:25am

Steve and John - many thanks for your input!  Kevin - given the legacy I think the course will have to be split over the two

Comment by Kevin Luttrell on October 17, 2011 at 9:43am

@ Sam. With the release of Python 3 this summer, and the announcement that Python 2.7.2 is the last release of the Python 2 development track, will the course be centered on the newer version or designed to bring people up to speed on 2 before pivoting to 3?

Comment by John Hardin on October 12, 2011 at 2:16pm

On the subject of reasons for learning Python, this article by Eric Raymond is old but makes a strong argument:  http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882.

Comment by Steve Bartz on October 12, 2011 at 6:52am

I use Python whenever I am working on problems that are functional in nature. By that I mean, if I see a problem and think, it would be fun or helpful to make an algorithm that could help me think through or solve the problem, then I draft up my algorithms in Python. The language is designed to make it very easy to explore and test ideas, and the unassuming syntax makes algorithms very readable. I do agree that Python is not the best tool for the job if you doing web development (Ruby is) or animation (C or commercial software probably is).

Comment by Sam Joseph on October 11, 2011 at 11:18pm

Hi there, I'm trying to promote my online Python course as HPU this Spring, and I'm wondering what people might think is the strongest argument for learning Python?  At the moment I kind of have a mixed back of using it for animation, web development and other esoteric thinks like natural language.  I think a big selling point is the huge range of libraries available, but I can't really find a great poster banner ... http://www.techhui.com/events/csci-3771-python-at-hpu-spring-2012

any ideas?

Comment by Derek Wyss on February 23, 2011 at 7:05pm

I believe I got Peachtree to install ok, but I don't think I did anything beyond that. At the time, it was still a challenge for me to get any kind of Linux to install, so I was pretty impressed with myself (and still am a bit). It was an interesting project you guys had. The hyper-minimalist distributions never seem to get much love, though.

I checked out the documentation for PyGOBject. It doesn't appear to be super newbie friendly. Perhaps I'll wait till someone puts out a tutorial... :)

Comment by Derek Wyss on February 23, 2011 at 2:59pm

Thanks everyone for the great responses.  I think I'll check out PyQt and mess around with that when I get the opportunity.

 

@David Cantrell, It may be profoundly unreasonable to do so, but I still eagerly await the next iteration of Peachtree Linux.  I'm sure my release 1 cd feels pretty lonely sitting on my shelf without any Peachtree siblings.

Comment by Daniel Nishimura on February 22, 2011 at 8:54pm

I'm not sure about companies in Hawaii, but Python is pretty huge in the 3D animation industry.  Autodesk, who holds the monopoly on the major 3D animation packages, has Python as its de facto scripting standard.  

 

@Derek - I've used both Python and Qt extensively, but not PyQt... However, based on my experience with Qt, I would highly recommend PyQt if you're not married to Python 3.x.  Qt made me not hate GUI development in C++ and I'm sure it's even better in Python.  Look up signals/slots under Qt and you won't be disappointed.  

Comment by Jason Skicewicz on February 22, 2011 at 3:24pm

@ Derek, if I were you, I would probably stick to python 2.6 instead of jumping ahead to 3.0 at this time.  The reason being, there may be libraries you want to use in your software that are just not compliant with 3.0 yet.  For example, I use Django for a number of projects, and they are not yet fully compliant with python 3.0 yet.  You are not really hurting yourself learning python 2.x since 3.0 is not that drastically different. This is a good read if you want to know the exact differences between the two - What's New in Python 3.0.  Also, you may want to check out wxPython for building a simple GUI program.  It has a very strong community of developers that are willing to help if you find yourself confused.  It's also very active (about 40-60 emails a day on their mailing list).

Comment by Alex G on February 21, 2011 at 9:42pm

@ Derek,
Hard to reply on the "wall comments" but... I just checked PyQt, and it is available for Python 3. Could be something to try. As for Python 3 - it didn't make it into Red Hat ES 6, but the Debian based distros give it to you, and so do the "home" distros like Fedora. If Windows you have to install it yourself anyway, so it's easy to go for Python 3 there. If you will have control of the environment and can install Python for yourself, go with P3. If you will send your scripts to someone else, stick to P2.6. I use P2.6 because I have to run my scripts on multiple OSes, and I'm never guaranteed to have P3 available. Hope that helps!

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