the general development using Python

[CM]

On Monday, July 8, 2013 9:45:16 PM UTC-4, ajetr... at gmail.com wrote:
> all,
> 
> 
> 
> I am unhappy with the general Python documentation and tutorials.  

OK.  Do you mean the official Python.org docs?  Which tutorials?  There's a ton out there.

> I have worked with Python very little and I'm well aware of the fact that it is a lower-level language that integrates with the shell.

I thought it was a high level language. Integrates with the shell?  Isn't it just simplest to think of it as a programming language and that's what you need to know?


> I came from a VB legacy background and I've already "un-learned" everything that I need to (I know, that language stinks, and isn't OOP or even useful!).

On that last point, I think a quick Google search of job postings suggests otherwise.

> I have to get back into writing Python but I'm lacking one thing ... 

I'm guessing it is probably more than *one* thing.  But moving along...

> So my issue is basically to understand how to go about writing programs and compiling them so they can be deployed to less tech-savvy people.  Here's what I think I have to do, in a general sense:
> 
> => Pick a GUI and just run through the tutorials to learn the interfaces as fast as possible.

Yes.

> This is all fine and dandy, but more than likely when I do this the people 
> that I am sending solutions to will, if not receiving a simple .exe file, 
> receive the package from me and say to themselves "what in the world do I do 
> with this!?"

Yes. If they are not Python users, that's right.  
 
> Is there anyway you guys would suggest that I fix this or help them deal with 
> complex languages like Python and programs written with it?

Again, "complex language"?  It's a programming language, that's it.

Anyway, yes: read the first sentence after "Overview" here:
https://us.pycon.org/2012/schedule/presentation/393/

The other respondents to your post have a good philosophical point, that it is kind of unfortunate to bundle up a Python program and the whole interpreter when you can just send a much smaller .py file, but in reality, there are a number of cases where doing it is preferred.  First, your case with completely unPython-savvy users.  Second, if you have a lot of dependencies and it would make it necessary for end users to install all of them for your program to work.  

In the end, I'm a fan of them.  Couple of responses to others in that regard:

> There are projects that "bundle" the CPython interpreter with your
> project, but this makes those files really big.

Maybe 5-20 MB.  That's a lot bigger than a few hundred K, but it's not that important to keep size down, really.

>  Target the three most popular desktop platforms all at once, no 
> Linux/Windows/Mac OS versioning. 

Ehhh... There are differences, in, e.g., wxPython between the three platforms, and you can either do different versions or, more aptly, just fix these differences in your code with conditional statements ("if this is Win, do this, else do that").