[Pythonmac-SIG] install again?

[Charles Hartman]

Oh well, "other platforms" -- if that means Linux of course you have  
to learn those same things, but you undoubtedly already know them. If  
it means Windows, I'd rather drive a truck, and I'm thinking  
particularly of potential users who feel the same way.

There are a lot of programming environments on the Mac besides  
Applescript that work from the GUI without any need to delve. Runtime  
Revolution and Breve are two examples that come to mind immediately.  
I'm thinking, for example, of someone who has worked in one of those  
very-high-level environments and wants to deepen her/his  
understanding and control. Turn to C, or rather C++? Oh dear. So how  
about Python? I think it's a great, an ideal choice. These are the  
people who, 25 years ago, would have picked up Turbo Pascal and  
gotten a great start on a lifelong obsession. Python should get them  
(and vice versa).

But while Tiger comes with Python, the moment you look for (for  
example) a GUI library, you learn that there's a much-superior Python  
(2.4), for which you can download a nice, familiar binary from Bob's  
site or from ActiveState. Good. And you can download a binary of (for  
example) wxPython. Good. And then you have to do this Terminal stuff.

No, the Terminal stuff isn't difficult. You find out (though as I  
recall it is *not* immediately obvious) that there are only a few  
simple things you need to learn to do. The point is that you're now  
engaged, however peripherally, with a whole other huge set of  
questions and conditions, and suddenly the learning curve for Python  
*looks* much steeper. The problem, as I see it, is that you encounter  
this stuff right at the very beginning. Everything for getting  
started with Python is off-the-shelf easy -- except of course that to  
get it running you just have to add the following lines to your  
profile and . . . what?? You start looking at docs, and quickly  
encounter references to directories that you can't even find among  
the folders on your OSX filesystem.

Of course OSX is Unix "under the hood"; but not everybody -- not even  
everybody interested in programming the Mac -- has gone into the dark  
spaces under the hood. The alternative to "under the hood" includes a  
lot more than just pushing buttons to get & send email, though this  
may be hard to remember once you've gone under the hood . . .

I don't know, maybe I was just traumatized at an early age (or rather  
a late one). I got over it, and I suppose everyone else can too. I'm  
the wrong person to ask. Maybe linda.s might have a more useful  
perspective at this point?

Charles



On Feb 6, 2006, at 10:06 AM, Kevin Walzer wrote:

> Just to continue the conversation, what do *you* think is the best
> approach? How should Python be made easier than it already is (and,
> frankly, compared to C, it's pretty easy)? What special  
> difficulties or
> obstacles does the Mac platform present to learning Python that are  
> not
> also present on other platforms?

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