[Tutor] Which computer operating system is best for Python developers?

[Jugurtha Hadjar]

On 23/02/2012 02:00, Tamar Osher wrote:
> Hi.  I am still having trouble installing and using Python on my (new) Windows 7 computer, but I plan to contact Microsoft forums and see if they can help me, since this is a Windows problem and not a Python problem.
>
> My question: For the future, what type of computer is best for Python developers?  Do all Python developers use some type of Unix computer?
> I appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing from you.  Thanks for your time.
>

That's actually a good question.

I am in Instrumentation Engineering (Electronics), and a lot of the 
software is designed  to run only in Windows, or, the equivalent 
software in Linux is more for hobbyists than for professionnals (Think 
software for printed circuit boards), or, in the best case there are 
versions that run on Linux, but they aren't as featured or updated as 
the one that run on Windows.

So I work on Windows. I have both Python26 and Python32 installed 
(Python26 for things like Numpy/SciPy).

I also installed VirtualBox and run Ubuntu 11.10. It's nice because most 
of the software I use is on Windows, but I fire up the virtual machine 
sometimes for programming stuff.

So it depends what you do and the software you use.

One last point: Having two versions of Python, here's what I did in 
order to chose which version is used depending what I'm doing (If I'm 
tinkering with Numpy, I must use Python26)


Python 2.6 is installed in C:\Python26
Python 3.2 is installed in C:\Python32

I added both paths to the Windows Environment Variables.

I created two .bat files named Python26.bat and Python32.bat, each one 
in the respective directory.

The Python26.bat file contains the follwoing lines:

@echo off
C:\Python26\python.exe %1

And the Python32.bat file contains the follwoing lines:

@echo off
C:\Python32\python.exe %1


So, if I write "python26 test.py" in the command line, the script gets 
"executed" by Python 2.6.
In the same way, if I write "python32 test.py", it gets executed by 
Python 3.2..

Just a little thing to make my life easier.


PS: If you have any question regarding the setting of the Virtual Box to 
run Ubuntu as a guest on Windows, feel free to ask for details. I'll be 
glad to provide links and things like that.

-- 
~Jugurtha Hadjar,