[Pythonmac-SIG] Python+Automator?

[has]

Bob wrote:

>>It's a question of marketing really: what type(s) of audience do 
>>you wish to promote Python to, and what needs to be done to 
>>guarantee each's capture?
>
>From the public documentation, you would trivially construct an 
>Action in PyObjC with the following boilerplate:
>
># MyAction.py
>from Foundation import *
>class MyAction(NSObject):
>     def runWithInput_fromAction_error_(self, theInput, anAction):
>         if somethingBadHappens:
>             result = None
>             error = someNSError
>         else:
>             result = [some output]
>             error = None
>         return result, error
>
>Is that so overwhelming?

For you, not in the slightest. For me, well I've been doing this 
Python thing a year now so think I can probably cope. So that's the 
professional and hack markets covered.

Now, what about the newbies, the new blood? The folks who are 
complete newcomers to Python and/or to programming in general? Try to 
see it from their point of view:

"What's 'Foundation'? What's a 'class'? Why do I return both a result 
_and_ an error? How do I hook up my super l33t GUI that I built 
myself by drag-and-drop? That language looks a bit geeky to me. 
Ho-hum,

on run {input, parameters, ignoresInput}
     set output to {}
     -- process input items into output items
     return output
end run

looks much simpler; think I'll use that instead."

And there went your sale. Ouch.


i.e. It's not that this particular group _couldn't_ use it if they 
wanted/had to: vast armies of completely self-taught amateur 
JavaScripters, ActionScripters and PHPers all achieving remarkable 
results from a total standing start should prove ordinary folk's 
fantastic ability to adapt and learn when they really need to. But as 
a general rule, most folk are busy, lazy, disinterested, and/or have 
much more important things to do with their time than waste it 
learning some complex new framework and language. So the chances are 
they don't. They just want to solve their problem in the least amount 
of time and work so they can get on with the much more important 
stuff they were doing before, so it won't much matter if Python is 
the technically superior option because from where they're standing 
if it looks like they can solve their problem quicker and easier by 
going to the competition, then that's what they'll do.

Yes, they're a hacktacular bunch and the code that they'll write will 
make a mature professional man like yourself howl tears of absolute 
despair at the merest glimpse of it. But just do the math before you 
write them off, because there's an awful lot more non-programmers out 
there using Macs than there are programmers. It's the folks like you 
and me too who are the exception - they're the rule. So if you can 
bring even a percentage of them into the Python fold then you've just 
up its marketshare, and getting bums on seats - as any marketing man 
or Alan Kay will tell you - is the bit that counts most. Build your 
userbase now, and you can always worry about setting them on the One 
Path to True Enlightenment later. So again, the question is: do we 
want 'em; and if we do, how do we ensure Python will be more 
attractive to them than the competition?

Hey, if nothing else p'rhaps some of them newcomers'll be Babes... 
Rotten job, I know; but gotta do it for the babes, man. ;)

has

-- 
http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/