Programming language, which one

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 10:35 am

Hi guys,
I am keen to resume my little start in prgramming (few years ago in basic C (and a number of years ago before that in BASIC (when i was 9 or so)))

I am not sure which language to focus on. I have started looking into Perl and Python. Both seem sound, although I think I might be leaning towards Python.

I have preference to a language that its best for GUI programming. So far being using the Tk library with both Python and Perl.

Any other suggestions ??

Post by **dann** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:46 pm

Perl is a great language to learn, especially with regards to scripting and integration with various utilities, services, and passing information between programs.

TCL/Tk is not too difficult to learn, but the applications can be a bit slim. More gui development is done these days in gtk or qt. So if you know C, jumping into gtk or QT may not be that difficult.

I am not a developer, so take my advice loosely.

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 7:50 pm

Thanx Dann.

The tick in the box for Python ATM is the documentation; far superior to Perl, its like Gentoo documentation, very well laid out.

I would of thought GTK/QT would be way out of my league

But I may have a look into it on your recommendations

Tk may be fine for my simple abilities.

Post by **dann** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:48 pm

My brief foray into tcl was mainly through this book: Practical Programming in Tcl and TK. But definetly check out the tcl/tk wiki, especially the <a href="http://wiki.tcl.tk/11483">getting started</a> section. Somewhere in there is a stand-alone tutorial/testing application written in tcl/tk. Really nice tool: <a href="http://www.msen.com/~clif/TclTutor.html#install">TCL Tutorial</a>.

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 9:53 pm

Thanx dann

I found a series of 14 or so 10 mins videos for learning Tk/Python. Guy tries to make it funny too. It really gets you hooked and seem to learn faster.

I'll check out your links too.

I had a little look at PyGTK and 'DAMN' it looks a little more 'complicated' then Tk. Maybe if there were video tutorials it wouldn't be so tough

mrben · Post by **mrben** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:16 am

DaveQB wrote:Thanx dann

I found a series of 14 or so 10 mins videos for learning Tk/Python. Guy tries to make it funny too. It really gets you hooked and seem to learn faster.

I'll check out your links too.

I had a little look at PyGTK and 'DAMN' it looks a little more 'complicated' then Tk. Maybe if there were video tutorials it wouldn't be so tough

Take a look at some of the Python Glade tutorials to make PyGTK a little easier. Personally I always use wxPython, because it's cross-platform - it renders in Gtk on Linux.

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 8:52 am

ok, thanx mrben

So PyGTK and wxPython are totaly different even thought they both use GTK and Python ??

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:15 am

DaveQB wrote:ok, thanx mrben

So PyGTK and wxPython are totaly different even thought they both use GTK and Python ??

wxPython uses not only GTK but can also work on Windows and Mac (I believe). I personally prefer wxPython although I havn't had much time to use it. I havn't tried PyGTK yet. I have used Tcl/Tk but it was to basic and didn't contain all the nice widgets and event handling wxPython does.

As for which you should learn I'd go with Python (obviously since the rest of my post is on it

). Python has so many cool builtin things and you can easily extend your programs with C/C++ and even Java. I havn't yet gotten into Perl but I heard its very different from any other language (whether this is good or bad I don't know)

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:18 pm

Thanx CptnObvious999

I am thinking along the same lines as you; the documentation on Python is far superior then Perl.

As for wxPython. I had a look into it, trying to find a good tut. And man it looks way more complicated then Tckinter. Might be able to do more, but jus ta simple window was twice the lines of code.

Need a video tutorial for it like Tk has

mrben · Post by **mrben** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:24 am

CptnObvious999 wrote:wxPython uses not only GTK but can also work on Windows and Mac (I believe).

Correct - under Linux it renders in GTK, but under Windows and Mac it renders in the native widget sets.

It does take a bit of getting used to, and the documentation is not as sparse, but the documentation for wxWidgets (the C++ library upon which it is based) is excellent and 95% of the time can be converted across to Python.

However, for 'simplicity' Glade is probably going to be easier for you.

DaveQB · Post by **DaveQB** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:38 am

Oh 'glade' is simpler to learn then Tk ??? So far, following these video tutorials, Tk looks simple as.

Hows Glade V Tk then ??

Any good links for wxPython for beginners ??

mrben · Post by **mrben** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:04 am

DaveQB wrote:Oh 'glade' is simpler to learn then Tk ??? So far, following these video tutorials, Tk looks simple as.

Hows Glade V Tk then ??

Any good links for wxPython for beginners ??

For Glade: http://primates.ximian.com/~sandino/python-glade/ (Glade allows you to build apps visually, thus easier than Tk)

For wxPython: a very basic tutorial is at http://www.wxpython.org/tutorial.php

There is also some stuff on the IBM Developworks site IIRC.

rwezowicz · Post by **rwezowicz** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:49 am

Python / Tk ... I haven't used it them ... I then to be a PHP and Perl guy.

I find PHP to be incredible powerful especially some of the new features in PHP5. If you know C, Perl/PHP will be a fine option.

If you know BASIC, you could go with SmallBasic (http://smallbasic.sourceforge.net/) but why would you want to still use BASIC.