[Edu-sig] Curriculum fine tuning...

kirby urner kirby.urner at gmail.com
Fri Oct 12 21:13:57 CEST 2007


So I'm coming to see how it's important to keep this
"core Python" idea current, as newbies from other
languages are used to a certain blending with eye
candy, e.g. Visual Studio, and think there's a fight
for "first lady" by Qt, Tk, wx and like that.

But there's not.  Python the language is agnostic
about eye candy or, as flies around here (where
theology isn't as well understood), isn't monogamous
with any particular widgets library.  Use none, use
them all, use anything in between.  Roll your own.

Part of what keeps Python simple to upgrade,
migrate along a 3.x path for example, is it isn't
weighed down with all these enormous commitments
to AWT or Swing type add-ons.  Even the Standard
Library is relatively spare, when it comes to UI stuff.

On the other hand, Tk has a great future.  I've seen
it used for air traffic control systems and hey, if it
does the job... easier to train new Tk programmers
to enchance and debug, than to start from scratch
in .NET or whatever.  As long as the planes stay
just as safe.  Tk is pretty stable, well understood,
so really, I'm not kidding.  Bright future.

Kirby


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