Hello people. I have some questions

[Martijn Faassen]

jeroen paul goudsmit <diedanootdie at danoot.com> wrote:
> I've heard about python and i thought that it coulb be a nice language for
> me to use. is it true that it can be used in every O.S.?

Yes, you can use it in lots of OSes (though I don't want to say 'any', but
surely almost any you'll encounter).

> I'm programming in vb now, and i'd like to know if python looks a little
> like it.

I don't know VB very well, but Python has constructs (like 'if' and 'while
' and 'for' that you'll recognize from VB, though they work a bit
differently). The biggest shift would be if you start to use
object oriented programming techniques. While you can program in Python
without doing any OO just fine, it becomes much more powerful when you do.

> If someone knows vb, can he translate this vb sentice into a python
> sentice: naam =   inputbox ("What's your name?", vbokonly, "Hekllo")

I don't know VB, but I can tell you this isn't translatable into Python
as such. VB integrates extremely tightly with Windows, and the Windows
user interface toolkit. Python is a far more open language, and far
more cross platform. It can integrate with the windows user interface
toolkit directly, but also with other GUI toolkits like Qt (runs on
Unix and also on Windows), GTK (runs on Unix and also on Windows),
Tk (runs on Unix and Windows and Mac), wxWindows (runs on Unix and
Windows and I believe a mac version is under development), etc, etc.

In each of these, you'd need a different line to accomplish any 
UI task. You'll have to pick the one you like best and learn how to use
that library. 

> Is python hard to learn?

No, it would be one of the most easiest programming languages to learn.
That said, it's probably easier to get started doing fancy GUI stuff
with environments such as VB or Delphi. Besides a programming language
(Microsoft's variety of Basic and Borland's variety of Object Pascal),
these environments also offer easy ways to build GUIs and database
connections. While there are advanced enviromments for Python in the works,
Python doesn't come with these out of the box. So, you'll have to do
more research for Python here.

The advantage of course is that you're not tied to any such environment
with Python; you can use any you like and you're far more flexible. There
was a list posted to this newsgroup recently; perhaps you can look it up.

> And is there a dutch person in this group?

There are several; me for instance. :)

> If there is one, can he/she tell me if there any dutch books about python.

Not yet, as far as I know. I've heard some rumors from reliable sources
that at least one Dutch publisher is looking for people to write such
a book, but don't hold your breath..

> Could you please answer my questions? Thanks.

I hope my answers have been of any use. :)

Good luck! I hope you decide to give Python a shot. If so, welcome to the
"free world". :) 

Regards,

Martijn
-- 
History of the 20th Century: WW1, WW2, WW3?
No, WWW -- Could we be going in the right direction?