Is Python any good?

[iamthwee]

I was just wonderin if python was worth learning? I have an option for it in Kbuntu, and was wondering if it was worth learning. I'd say no personally, what do you think?

[jrcagle]

Absolutely!

I was a C coder for years, then learned Python so that I could teach a programming course. Python has, IMO, the triple virtues of being (1) powerful, (2) readable, and (3) well-supported by add-on modules.

Consider:

phone_numbers = {"Jake":"301-555-1212",
                 "Bud":"410-555-3434",
                 "Jen":"800-867-5309"}
for name in phone_numbers:
    print name, phone_numbers[name]

Even without knowing much Python, you can predict what the output will be. Readability is one of the prime virtues of Python. And, in a few lines of code, you managed to implement a hash table that would be much more complicated in C (for a beginner).

My $0.02
Jeff

[iamthwee]

hmm, well maybe if I get some time. Do you know of any tutorials?

[sneekula]

There is 'Starting Python' right here to give you a taste:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread20774.html

A good starter tutorial:
http://bembry.org/technology/python/index.php

Another good starter tutorial:
http://www.ibiblio.org/g2swap/byteofpython/read/

And of course there is always the latest update:
http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/tut.html

Now watch out, Python takes an open mind and is addictive!

[vegaseat]

Python is not for everbody! If you are an entrenched traditional language (C, C++, Java, C#, Pascal) person, Python, because of its elegance, will be too confusing for you.

[iamthwee]

Python is not for everbody! If you are an entrenched traditional language (C, C++, Java, C#, Pascal) person, Python, because of its elegance, will be too confusing for you.

Yes that could be true. It looks like a very simplified coding language for the less able. I'll have a look anyway, learning it would hardly make much difference to me. The interest I have is that it may be useful when programming 3d meshes in blender3d

[pyarticles]

Try http://pyarticles.blogspot.com

[bumsfeld]

Try http://pyarticles.blogspot.com

Where is the meat?

[vegaseat]

From a seasoned programmer:

I will chime with a different speed metric to think about, the speed with which you solve problems. I've programmed in quite a few languages in my life, python and java inclusive, and I will say for general problem solving, I can crank out better solutions in a shorter amount of time in python vs. any other procedural based language. I love the syntax, the level of built in goodies (native dictionaries, memory manager, type inference engine, duck typing, partial functions, lambda functions, functional programming, meta programming, generators, decorators, list comprehension, generator expressions, tuples, sets, lists and much more), and above all, the balance between terseness and verbosity in the language itself.

Some more interesting quotes ...

It’s a highly adaptable (and scalable), full-featured, object-oriented programming language that’s suitable for a wide variety of jobs. It's stable and mature, has large and powerful standard libraries, and integrates extremely well with C, C++, or Java code, and COM objects. -- O'Reilly ()

I feel Python was designed for the person who is actually doing the programming, to maximize their productivity. [...] When you have the experience of really being able to be as productive as possible, then you start to get pissed off at other languages. You think, "Gee, I've been wasting my time with these other languages." -- Bruce Eckel

[Ene Uran]

"Is Python any good?"
I don't think this person really wants to know, so my question is:
"Is iamthwee any good?"

[Toba]

Yes that could be true. It looks like a very simplified coding language for the less able. I'll have a look anyway, learning it would hardly make much difference to me. The interest I have is that it may be useful when programming 3d meshes in blender3d

Funny you should say that. This summer I'm working on a project called PySoy, a Python game module that uses blender meshes. It's not ready for release yet, but we're working on it.

[vegaseat]

Hi Toba, good luck with the PySoy project. I will check it out when they release in the fall.

In the meantime, I studied up on Soya3D, looking through the tutorial stuff at:
http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/soya3d/tutorials/index.html

Also, I keep checking the blender3D tutorials at:
http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/tutorials/

Very nice indeed!

[Toba]

Soya3D kills vertex/normal layout, converting your mesh to polygons with individual verticies, then merging these verticies back together based on proximity, then computes the normals based on this. The exporter is really bad.

This is all second hand knowledge on my part, I just thought you should know.

[Ene Uran]

Python is not only a scripting language for a graphics marvel like Blender3D, but also for Open Office. You can create or modify spreadsheets, documents and so on via OO's UNO API. Check out PyUno at:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Python

Open Office in my opinion outperforms Microsoft Office, and on top of that is free from Sun.