Is Python for me?

[DvdAvins]

>You don't say anything about the program you are planning, so no one
>can give a meaningful answer to your question. The language I would
>choose for a cross-platform GUI application may not be the language I'd
>choose for writing web server applications, or querying a database.
>There is no one best programming language for everything.
>
>I would use the language and tools I am most productive with. For the
>vast majority of programmers, that means using one of the handful (or
>fewer) programming languages they know well. I can't tell for sure, but
>your post gives the impression that you don't know any of the
>programming languages you are asking about. Do you have any programming
>experience at all? If yes, what language or languages are you most
>experienced and comfortable with?

I do have programming experience, but the vast majority of my work has been
LotusScript (an OO variant of VB) or Domino/Notes's @Formula language
(which has lovely list operations and can *almost* be made to behave like a
real
language, despite its total lack of a looping/iteration construct). I've also
written
production code in Javascript and Sybase's stored procedure language (T-SQL
is the name, if I remember right). On top of that, I fiddled around a little in
Java
recently and C, Fortran, and Pascal in the distant past.

But the point here is to use something I'm *not* familiar with and something
that
will help me think in new ways.

The project is a non-animated game. To a less technical audience, I'd say
"non-graphical", but I will use a GUI. The game will rely on an extensive
database of actual historical information, but that database will be updatable
and
even replacable by the user. Therefor I imagine I'll use CSVs rather than write
a custom import/export interface. I don't think I'll need the performance of an
RDBMS.

Incidentally, there are similar programs out there now, but they rely on
proprietary data formats. My innovation would be to sell people the game
without making them have to pay me to update the data.

The first iteration of the game will be, as you say, a cross-platform GUI
application, but there is also a market for a web-based version.