Home Original page

Python vs. C++ Builder - speed of development

Alex Martelli aleax at aleax.it
Wed Jan 29 06:29:16 EST 2003 
Brandon Van Every wrote:
   ...
> Really, look at all the overstuffed functionality available in modern
> widget sets and tell me that Python can somehow do a better job
> interfacing it all than C++ can.  It can't.

You assertion is simply false.  I'm an expert in both C++ and Python,
and I have experimented writing GUI's with both Qt driven by C++, and
PyQt driven by Python: Python's productivity advantage for this task is
about a factor of two in my experience -- not as high as for most kind
of code (where factors of about four to ten are more common in my
observations) but high enough to matter.

If you generate your Qt or PyQt interface with WYSYWIG tools (Qt
Designer, BlackAdder, Eric, ...) then, since the tools look and feel
much the same, it makes no real difference what kind of code they
generate, of course -- until you start coding to make your GUI be
_alive_, i.e., do anything but look pretty on the screen, and then
Python's productivity advantage immediately kicks in again.

(Personally, I'm more productive CODING a GUI [even in C++ plus
Qt...] than PAINTING it [say with Qt Designer] -- but, that's just
me, I realize: I think verbally, not visually, to a far greater
extent than most people, so GUI painters and other tools that
force me to think visually almost inevitably slow me down -- and
indeed I'm almost the last person you should want to DESIGN a GUI
in the first place -- but, these are totally separate issues).


Alex
More information about the Python-list mailing list