[Chicago] Python 3.5 in Ubuntu???

[kirby urner]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 5:17 PM, Lewit, Douglas <d-lewit at neiu.edu> wrote:

> Hi Kirby,
>
> Thanks for the reply.  Where do you teach?  Yeah, I can start Python 3.5
> in Terminal, not a problem, but I can't launch *idle3.5*--even though the
> command is there in /usr/bin.  I have a feeling this is more of an OS
> problem than a Python problem.  I don't know all the details, but I'm sure
> eventually the people in charge of all those great Ubuntu repositories will
> address the issue, but not necessarily for Ubuntu 15.04, maybe for some
> future version of the OS.
>
>
Hi Doug --

I'm just coming on-board here:  https://pdxcodeguild.com/team/  (<guild
/>).  They just added that bio blurb like yesterday.

I also teach at saisoft.net based in Irvine, California.

However my full time glorious Python job for the last few years has been
with the mother ship:  O'Reilly Media (in the guise of oreillyschool.com),
parent company to so much we treasure (e.g. Safari On-Line).

They're getting out of the school business though (at least for now, in
that form).

A very dicey sandbox in which to play, the school business.  So much is
changing so fast.



> Also, through some painful trial and error I found out that you better be
> careful when you change Python versions in Ubuntu.  DO NOT remove the older
> versions!  The system needs them for various tasks.  Fortunately I was able
> to fix that problem with three lines of code in xterm.
>

That same advice goes for Windows, where such as Hewlett-Packard have
embedded Python in their "distro" (vendors modify Windows to some extent).
Worried consumers would call in wondering of this "python" might be a virus
(urban legend).

Older Pythons or older versions of anything may Be The For a Reason. [tm]

You're aware I think that IDLE in particular depends on a non-Python
process running:  the Tk widgets come from a resource written in tcl
("tickle") that exports bindings for other languages.

The module tkinter is the inter-operability module i.e. is basically the
driver for Tk.  Guido wrote it when he got a little funding from DARPA that
time (which agency continues to pour money into Python in various ways,
e.g. $3 mil to Continuum Analytics).

https://www.continuum.io/blog/news/continuum-analytics-receives-3m-darpa-xdata-funding
(source of that Anaconda distro I mentioned)

You probably know that already, about IDLE (a pun on Eric Idle of the Monty
Python troupe).

I tell my students that Python remains reasonably small because it does not
embed any specific widgets solution, but in the Standard Library we have an
excellent *example* of Python playing well with others to make GUI tool:
IDLE.

Other widget toolkits Python plays with:  GTK+, wx... Qt (not exhaustive).

If we throw in Jython and/or IronPython, the list expands.

I've had IDLE working on Ubuntu in the past and know it can be done.
You've no doubt visited StackOverFlow 'n all that.

Kirby


>
> Have a good one and thanks for the message.
>
> Have a great 2016!!!
>
> Best,
>
> Doug.
>
>
>
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