I’m currently learning and using Python for a little internal project here at Gurock Software and so far, I’m really impressed. The language itself is very clean, the source looks well structured, the standard library is comprehensive and well documented and there are nice third-party modules. Because of this, I was able to write a script with less than 100 lines that would have needed many thousand lines with other languages.
However, I still wouldn’t use it to develop a rich GUI Windows application that needs to be deployed to customers. I know of projects like py2exe and wxPython, but I still think that Delphi is by far the best environment to build GUI applications. For internal projects and maybe web applications, Python is great.
5 Comments
You’re right. It’s still hard to develop GUI apps using Python. But I think it’s worth it. The power of the language is mind-blowing. I can do things I could never dream to do in C++.
I’m using it right now to develop an audio editor. You can see a screen shot here: http://www.nuotex.com/audiopencil/
I’m using the pywin32 MFC wrappers. Even if it’s still rough around the corners, it’s actually easier to develop than in Visual C++. Imagine that! The only parts where I use C++ are the ones which require maximum performace (like the wave drawing code) and the interface to other libraries. Even the audio thread runs fully in Python.
I’ve used Delphi 3.0 a long time ago. It’s a nice language. One of my favourite apps is done in it (FruityLoops).
As you’ve probably seen, the latest version of Delphi seems to borrow some stuff from Python (or maybe C#?):
uses Borland.Vcl.*;
for char in str do write(char);
BTW, since you’re still learning Python, you might be interested in checking out Boo, which seems to be a better Python for the .Net/Mono API:
http://boo.codehaus.org
Adal: Audio Pencil looks nice. I myself wouldn’t really consider Python/MFC to build GUI applications, because one of the nice advantages of a Python app would be lost: platform-independence. If I would go the route to use Python for GUI apps, I would think about something like wxPython. But I’m sure Python/MFC is a nice alternative to C++/MFC for most things.
Fred: Thanks for the link, I will check Boo out.
Give a try to wxPython.
Only one advice, if you are going to develop some serious stuff , consider using comercial tools for GUI design ( wxdesigner , http://www.roeblig.de ) and wingIDE ( http://www.wingide.com ).
We in my company have developed very large apps ( client/server ) with it.
Thanks for the links! Good to know that there are some commercial/professional tools for Python GUI development. I’m always in favor of such tools when they noticeably improve the productivity.