ChapterZero

Python is turning out to be a wonderful language. I’m glad I took the time to learn yet another language; this time it has actually been worth it. The tutorial van Rossum wrote for it is surprisingly comprehensive, and having read it over a weekend, I feel I’ve learned just about everything I’ll ever need to know about Python :), but I’m going to work my way through Dive into Python, if only for the longer more practical examples. Then I’m going to find a book that does for Python what Learning Perl does for Perl, so by the time I’m finished reading it, I’ll have syntax coming out of my ears. It doesn’t seem like Python has much syntax to learn though, so that should go by quickly.

After that, I have no idea what to do next. Certainly I’ll browse through the standard library docs, so I’ll have a clue of what tools are out there. I know I’d like to learn Numeric, because then I could use Python’s scientific toolboxes better, and maybe even forget about Matlab for personal use (I dislike using it even at work). Of course, I’d also like to learn one of the windowing toolkits, either wxPython or PyGTK; it depends on which OS I’m running this summer— I might be moving my desktop into my office at school, in which case I might have an Internet connection which makes running Linux worthwhile.

Python also seems like it would be a really nice language for web application development, given the way it is so easy to load toolboxes into it, the way you do for Perl, as opposed to PHP (how do you load stuff in PHP?). So maybe I’ll look into that.

Possibly relevant posts:

• Convex Hull Python script (9/9/2007)
• Language confessions (12/23/2004)
• Compiling Python Extensions w/ Mingw32 (5/30/2005)