Is there some Python + IDE/RAD for real speed development???

[Alex Martelli]

<posted & mailed>

Edilmar wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> First of all, I'm new in Python...
> 
> I have worked with manu langs and IDEs, like Delphi, VB, JBuilder,
> Eclipse, Borland C++, Perl, etc...
> 
> Then, today I think IDEs like Delphi have a excelent environment to
> develop apps with little time. I saw many people talking about Python like
> a easy lang to learn and to develop. But I have look at IDEs for Python,
> or ways to develop GUIs with it, and I think it already is limited when
> comparing with IDEs like Delphi. Is this afirmation true?

I don't think you have considered all the available GUIs for Python,
and, in particular, the commercial ones (like Delphi and its Linux
version Kylix are commercial).  For example, BlackAdder (which uses
the same commercial Qt libraries which I believe Kylix uses) seems
to have the "GUI painter" kind of tool that you require.  If it's GUI
painters you're after, I think you can find some, either commercial
or free (not all in definitive versions, many will still be betas),
for most toolkits you might want to use (PythonWorks makes a commercial
one for Tkinter, I think one can use glade + gic [gic.sourceforge.net]
for Gtk, I see somebody's already mentioned Boa for wx, etc, etc).


> I look at wxPython and PyGTK, but the samples showed that we have to write
> MANY LINES of code to do simple things. Many people have wrote about the
> advantage of Python to write little code, but, when talking about GUIs,
> I think it's not really true, right?

If you want a code generator (particularly a tool that generates code
based on a GUI you paint on-screen) that's not hard to find (particularly
if, as in Delphi's case, you're willing to pay for one).  The amount of
code to be thus generated for typical GUI's (minus, that is, any logic
behind them) won't be all that different between e.g. Python and Delphi's
Object Pascal.  If the code that's automatically generated does all that
your application needs, then it makes no difference to you what language
that generated code is in, of course.

Python's advantages shine when you have to write code as opposed to being
100% satisfied with code automatically generated, and in that respect
there is no real difference between GUI's (as soon as you need to
customize the generated code or put custom logic behind it -- via
inheritance, of course, it would be counterproductive to go and edit
files produced automatically by a code generator) and other application
areas.


> Using Delphi, little or none code is need for many things, but wxPython
> and PyGTK is the reverse!

I assume you do not mean what you say, but rather that the GUI painter /
IDE you use generates just about all code you need ("for many things") in
Delphi's case, while you're apparently not using any code generator for
either wxPython or pyGTK and therefore need to write all code yourself.
So, if you want a code generator / GUI painter, get one...


Alex