Need advice on choosing skills.

[Randall Smith]

Funny you said that.

I chose Postgresql about a year ago to use at work for several projects 
and have never looked back.

I started working with wxPython about 2 months ago and like it for the 
same reasons.

I built a website using Webware.

I'm looking for a solution for tying together PHP to a python backend. 
xmlrpc, soap , corba maybe.  Might twisted be good for this?

Thanks.

Randall

Robin Munn wrote:
> Randall Smith <randall at tnr.cc> wrote:
> 
>>The big question.  In the limited time I have, what technologies would 
>>you suggest I learn and why?  I realize the question 'Depends' on many 
>>factors.  If it helps, I'm not money-hungry.  I simply want to be 
>>productive, help others with my skills, and make choices that are good 
>>for the computing world at large.
> 
> 
> If your focus is on doing useful stuff, then learn things that will
> directly help you in that goal. For example, I would suggest a
> cross-platform Python GUI as a good next step. I chose wxPython myself
> because it can run and look native on Windows, Mac, and all forms of
> Unix that GTK has been ported to (which is just about all of the popular
> ones). I wanted to pick a GUI that would let me *easily* write
> cross-platform apps that would run on Unix, Mac and Windows, because
> there's a lack of quality open-source software for the latter two
> platforms. I rejected Tkinter because adding another scripting language
> underneath Python seemed a bit much, and I didn't find that Tkinter
> looked "native enough" on Windows. (I understand that it has improved a
> bit since I looked at it, but by now I've invested enough time in
> learning wxPython that I'll just stick with that.)
> 
> After learning wxPython, I'd suggest the Twisted framework as a good
> next step. (You could also very productively switch the order and learn
> Twisted first, then wxPython). As of the latest version of Twisted, it
> integrates nicely with wxPython, and the more I learn Twisted, the more
> impressed I am with how easy it makes it to do rather powerful things.
> 
> After wxPython and Twisted, if you still have time, I'd suggest moving
> away from programming languages and spending some time playing around
> wiht a good database like PostgreSQL. Beyond that, if you've still got
> more time, look into one of the Python-based Web frameworks. There I
> can't give you a recommendation, as I'm not too familiar with them
> myself.
> 
> Between Python, a GUI like wxPython, a framework like Twisted, a
> transactional database system like PostgresQL, and a solid Web framework
> like (insert your favorite here), you'll have a lot of quality,
> multi-purpose tools in your programming toolkit with which to build
> whatever application you might desire.
>