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One drawback of python... [I object!]

WP warrenpstma at _______.com.hotmail
Wed Feb 12 11:10:25 EST 2003 
Gumuz wrote:
> One drawback of python I recently realised is that it takes away a lot of
> fun in 'other' programming languages. I programmed in Delphi on and off, for
> a few years. I only started doing python for half a year and I'm totally in
> love with it and capable of many, many more things then I can with Delphi.

Really sorry to disagree but, I have a hard time believing you got 
anywhere with Delphi then, or understood the power of Delphi.

Python lover that I am, I would prefer Python on almost every level. The 
syntax is nice, the reflectiveness is nice, and for non-GUI scripting, 
text processing, and as an extension language, I think Python is nearly 
perfect. But for writing commercial line-of-business GUI applications, 
Delphi still beats everything else. I've been a Delphi developer for 
about 6 years now.

Take Python.  Simple, easily learned. Add GUI toolkit.  What happens, 
all that beauty goes to hell.

You do a lot of damage to the elegance and beauty of Python by putting 
in a GUI. The best I've seen on Python can't even hold a candle to the 
1995 initial release of Delphi, version 1.0.

With Delphi, the language and the widgets and objects that come with the 
system fit together snugly, and the RAD IDE is simply fantastic.

Python is a million miles away from having something comparable to 
Delphi's development model.

I still prefer Delphi for GUI development on Windows, although I have 
tried to like Python GUI toolkits, I think they are all gross, although 
I have tried many of them.

Here's my question: Is there a GUI toolkit for Python that makes 
subclassing and writing new widgets as easy as it is to write new 
widgets for Delphi's VCL?  How does one get around the opaque-ness of 
Python GUI libraries? There are no GUI libraries (afaik) that are 
written in 100% pure python, they are mostly wrappers of something 
written in something else (Tcl, C/C++).  An effort to recode the Tcl API 
in 100% python, and drop the requirement to run a Tcl interpreter inside 
Python's Tkinter was made, but was abandoned. Was it ever revived?

What about a RAD IDE equivalent to Delphi? Boa Constructor was a noble
effort, and I intended to contribute to its development, but couldn't
get over my distaste of the wxWindows API. No offense to Robin Dunn, 
because he did a great service to the Python community by developing 
wxPython, but the thing about GUI wrappers is they should probably 
expose the raw API of the underlying C++ code, but that is a trade-off 
approach, by its very nature. Perhaps its the best solution for many 
people, but i have a hard time giving up Delphi to go to that approach.

Warren
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