[Pythonmac-SIG] Learning Python on the Mac
Steven Burr
sburr@home.com
Mon, 2 Jul 2001 21:48:30 -0700
On Monday, July 2, 2001, at 02:26 PM, Mendelsohn, Danny wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I downloaded Python 2.1 a couple of weeks ago and have been goofing of
> with
> it at work on my NT Workstation(blech!) I really like Python and wan't
> to
> take it a step further and really try and learn the language. I use Mac
> OS
> 9.1 at home and I've gone ahead and installed Python. I was going to
> buy the
> o'reilly book by Mark Lutz. Does anyone know if I can apply what's in
> that
> book to the Mac OS distribution of Python or are there glaring
> differences?
>
> I guess what I'm most concerned about is the lack of a real command
> line and
> having to deal with all that Mac Toolbox crap I've heard about.
>
> Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
I'm also making my way through Programming Python on a Mac, but I'm
running OS X rather than 9. It's a fantastic book, but it might not be
the best choice for learning Python on OS 9.
The first third focuses on command-line system tools. Much of what it
covers--e.g. using command-line arguments, piping commands from one
process to another--would probably be unusable on OS 9.
The second third covers GUI programming using Tkinter, which, as someone
else has pointed out, doesn't work well on OS 9. (Tkinter doesn't work
at all in Aqua, but I'm getting around that by running the Tkinter
examples in XDarwin. See http://www.mrcla.com/XonX/ for more info about
this.)
Btw, I also have an NT workstation at my job. It makes telecommuting a
very attractive option. : )