Boss wants me to program

[phil]

> 
> Theres even a version of Python for .NET, called IronPython. The major
> advantage of this is that you get to program in Python, which I can
> tell you from experience is a lot more enjoyable and pain-free than C,
> C++, Fortran, or Java (and, I would highly suspect, VB and C#). But
> apparently the available GUI builders aren't as good for Python -
> having not done a whole lot of GUI building in general, I'll leave this
> for more experienced people to judge.
> 

 From 30 years of application development experience I will tell you
NOT HUMBLY, that Python is easily the most productive, the most 
read-write and the most elegant of any of the above.  Handsdown
better than Java, the runner up in that group.

Now let me explain somthing about "GUI buiders" or IDE's, from some
experience, Visual Studio being the worst.

The IDE takes a picture of what they think you want to do, they then ask
you some questions about the components, and they afford you the
opportunity to modify the properties of the objects.
Then they store all this info in tables and build code at
buildtime.  The tables are rarely documented well and sometimes
have very confusing layouts.  So you usually go back to the
IDE to make changes and if the changes are compilcated and there
are interconnected events to consider, you better know what you are
doing.

I consider it a nightmare of hiding code from the programmer.
The IDE is taking on the burden of a couple layers of abstraction
and the IDE ain't that smart.

You would be wise, if you choose Python to choose Tkinter or WxWindows
and learn the properties of a radio button and how to trigger events.
Writing simple GUIs is not that hard.  Then after you know what is
going on behind the scenes, a BOA Constructor will not be as
mysterious or dangerous.