Newbie Question about Python as a language

[Dave Brueck]

Dave Guenthner wrote:
> Hello. I write a lot of small programs mostly in Visual Basic 6 or
> VBScript using WSH 5.6 for any number of purposes.  I am curious on
> what Python does that say Java doesn't do?

Feel free to search the Google archives of comp.lang.python to read up 
on many, many previous threads on language comparisons.

> For example, I would
> definetly need some type if Visual Development Environment.

If your development style _requires_ a visual dev environment then 
Python may not be for you - it doesn't have IDEs as mature as e.g. 
Microsoft Visual Studio. If the need is more because that's just what 
you're used to, then Python might suit you well after all.

>  Also,
> does Python have methods or classes to access the Windows registry?

Yes. There is a built-in module called _winreg, but using ctypes you can 
access pretty much all of the Win32 API (as well as functions in 3rd 
party DLLs) so you can access the registry that way too.

> Also, I guess if was going to use an OO language, why would I choose
> Python over say C# and Visual Studio? 

Lower development costs (up-front and long-term), higher productivity, 
cross-platform support, not getting screwed if your closed-source vendor 
decides to radically alter the language (e.g. VB -> VB.NET), ease of 
leveraging other technologies, etc.

You'll have to decide what factors are most important for you and your 
project, of course. A few months ago we brought on a developer who 
preferred C# and so he did his first couple of projects here in it. 
Since then he's learned Python and now dreads any time he spends going 
back and working on those C# projects. YMMV.

-Dave