Which Pyton Book For Newbies?

[W. D. Allen]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and
2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

Thanks,

WDA
(e-mail address removed)

end

 

[pretoriano_2001]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and

Try in: www.wxpython.org
or in
http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython&title=More Information

2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

Try in: http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html
I nice Book I has is in:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...2000/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6666182-3979942?ie=UTF8

 

[pretoriano_2001]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and

Try in: www.wxpython.org
or in
http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython&title=More Information

2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

Try in: http://docs.python.org/tut/tut.html
I nice Book I has is in:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...2000/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6666182-3979942?ie=UTF8

 

[hanumizzle]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and
2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

I am a fairly experienced programmer and I have been reading Dive Into
Python. If you have prior experience, you may find it very
satisfactory. (But see a recent thread I started which points out a few
small mistakes...nothing too bad over all.) If you have less
programming experience, you may wish to look at Byte of Python. The
great thing about Python is that there is a ton of online material to
peruse...

 

[Cameron Laird]

I am a fairly experienced programmer and I have been reading Dive Into
Python. If you have prior experience, you may find it very
satisfactory. (But see a recent thread I started which points out a few
small mistakes...nothing too bad over all.) If you have less
programming experience, you may wish to look at Byte of Python. The
great thing about Python is that there is a ton of online material to
peruse...

As fond as I am of Python (enough so to have been recognized for my
advocacy by the community), and as often as I've lauded Python for
its "easy entry", I feel compelled to observe that it *is* possible
to program in Basic under Linux; perhaps such an approach would
particularly suit you. Have you considered, for example, <URL:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Languages/BASIC/ >?

 

[danielx]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and
2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

Thanks,

WDA
(e-mail address removed)

end

I'm sure you will hear this many times, but that's a great choice . I
really think you'll like Learning Python from O'Reilly Press. The
authors claim you can read the book even with no prior programming
experience, which seems plausible having read it. Of course, you
already have some programming experience, so it should go much more
smoothly with you. Good luck finding the right book!

 

[Simon Forman]

I want to write a retirement financial estimating program. Python was
suggested as the easiest language to use on Linux. I have some experience
programming in Basic but not in Python.

I have two questions:
1. What do I need to be able to make user GUIs for the program, and
2. Which book would be easiest to use to learn Python programming?

Thanks,

WDA
(e-mail address removed)

Tkinter is an easy to use GUI that comes with python. There's a good
online manual, "Tkinter reference: a GUI for Python", at
http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/lang/python/tkinter.html

HTH,
~Simon

 

[John Salerno]

I'm sure you will hear this many times, but that's a great choice . I
really think you'll like Learning Python from O'Reilly Press. The
authors claim you can read the book even with no prior programming
experience, which seems plausible having read it. Of course, you
already have some programming experience, so it should go much more
smoothly with you. Good luck finding the right book!

I second this, as usual. Learning Python (2nd ed.) is excellent and all
you need to get started.

But for GUI programming, you'll need more. Tkinter comes with Python and
is usually considered easy to start using. After a few days with it, I
decided to simply go all out and learn wxPython instead (wxPython in
Action is a great book). wxPython is a lot easier than I thought it
would be, and a much more complete toolkit.

But I think the usual caveat for GUI programming is, is it necessary?
Would it work just as well to make a website interface to do your work,
rather than spend the time learning a GUI toolkit and creating a GUI app?

 

[Gerhard Fiedler]

But I think the usual caveat for GUI programming is, is it necessary?
Would it work just as well to make a website interface to do your work,
rather than spend the time learning a GUI toolkit and creating a GUI
app?

While I don't doubt that there are many applications that are well-suited
for web apps and that there are a number of good reasons for making some
apps web-based, why do you think web programming is /not/ GUI programming?

If you just need a few text boxes and buttons in a table-like layout, both
are easy. If you need fancier functionality, both get a bit more
complicated. There isn't much of a difference in terms of designing the
GUI, IMO.

(Actually, complex GUI functionality is probably easier to design to run
well in a local application. You don't have to split up the GUI
functionality between server-side and client-side and you don't have to
deal with the subtle but sometimes significant differences between
browsers.)

Gerhard

 

[John Salerno]

While I don't doubt that there are many applications that are well-suited
for web apps and that there are a number of good reasons for making some
apps web-based, why do you think web programming is /not/ GUI programming?

Personally I enjoy GUI programming, so I'm not really one of the people
that recommend a web app instead. I was just throwing that out there as
a possibility. After all, it does seem easier to use a few HTML buttons
and textboxes in a table than to have to learn even the basics of
something like wxPython or Tkinter. But wxPython is fun anyway, so I
recommend it.

 

[Bob Sinclar]

Web programming is all about stdin & stdout. Recommanded practice
before going further.

 

[hanumizzle]

Web programming is all about stdin & stdout. Recommanded practice
before going further.

It's actually a little more (at least as far as CGI is concerned)...it
bears some level of abstraction, namely, a decent CGI lib.

 

[Rob Sinclar]

It's actually a little more (at least as far as CGI is concerned)...it
bears some level of abstraction, namely, a decent CGI lib.

Do you mean CGI is not about standard input.
In other words CGI is GUI programming? Oh probably.