Programmer-Wanna-Be (Is Python for me?)

[Alex Martelli]

<fifeclub at my-deja.com> wrote in message news:8s5b2h$73f$1 at nnrp1.deja.com...
    [snip]
> I do have two more questions now (derived from previous replies).  In
> simple terms:  1)What is Boa Constructor?  and 2)What is wxPython?
> Should I be looking in to these?  Are these for later on?

(1) "Boa Constructor" is a visual-design tool for Python GUIs that
use wxPython.  (2) wxPython is a GUI toolkit that is a Python way
to access the excellent wxWindows C++ GUI toolkit (currently
portable between Unix/Linux flavors and Windows flavors, with
Mac, BeOpen, &tc in the making AFAIK).

I do believe that wxWindows/wxPython are excellent GUI toolkits,
and Boa Constructor potentially a great way to build wxPython
GUI's - but, yes, I don't think you need to worry about them
right now.  When learning carpentry from scratch, it's IMHO
better to start by understanding wood, types of wood, wood
working tools, and so on; how you, specifically, can _finish_
the external surfaces of wood artifacts, and what tools and
auxiliary materials (including paint-types), you can use for
that very specialized purpose, seems to me something that might
be better left for a later stage of your initiation to the
noble and ancient art of carpentry.  No doubt, for many wooden
artifacts, the exterior surfaces, with their finishing, are a
key part of the "user experience" -- but 90% of the carpenter's
art has to do with the *structure* that is behind those well
finished surfaces (if they're present at all -- not a few
wooden artifacts present no finished surfaces to the end-user,
being actually embedded in other, larger artifacts, in which
they play a purely structural role)...


Alex