Programming


Wow... 2% vs 50% the speed of C.


The arguments for Java just got a lot stronger, never realized it was that much of a difference.


Still, as you say, it shouldn't really affect me for a long long while, and then I can learn C when it finally does become a necessity. (And I have some years of experience under my belt).


I would rather get up and running faster with Python, and maybe have to learn some C later... than to put all my eggs in the Java basket, and possibly be discouraged in the beginning (but maybe I wouldn't, I can't say).


Thanks for all the insight.


But considering the android app store, Java may be a good idea to learn after Python anyway... I shall see.
 
i haven't done much with it, but check out kivy for android (and others) python development.

let me know if you make anything interesting with it ;) .
 
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Well, I know the best way to learn is interactively, but as I am a crafter and I have a huge order I'm trying to get ready as well as making stock for the mid year....


My hands need to be working while I have the strength to stay awake each day...


This has been frustrating because the Python bug has bitten me.


As a compromise I've been watching absolute beginner lectures on you tube, and it's been great!


There is a lot of repetition, and I find I'm learning a great deal.


Watched someone make a game from scratch using pygame last night.


WOW.... So relatively quick and easy! It's mind blowing.


I know if I gave myself just one day to not work on anything else, I could pop out a game with original mechanics, my own custom graphics, and even distribute it packaged as an installer. (While referring to online documentation of course)


Yes it would be the most simple of games, but OMG!


I'm amazed at how easy this language is. And I have a feeling growing in me that Python is going to change my life...


I. Am. So. EXCITED!!!!! 1!!! 1!!! :D
 
i feel happy for you.


python is a great starting point. should you, later on, notice that you cant reach a certain goal with pure python, you will be able to learn other stuff easier and faster with what you learned through python along the way.


as long as you dont want to be a pro hardware designer, my belief is that you rarely will be facing situations in which python lets you down.
 
My Pandora has been slightly neglected for a while now but this thread has me pretty inspired to throw myself at some learning.

Going through the posts here however, I am a little unsure if I am going about things wrong. Is the Pandora a good place to be trying to set up a programming environment?

I am a little confused about all the tools available to me and not actually sure about what I need to do things.

Geany seems to be somewhere I can write in Python and set up project, but it won't let me actually run them?

Code::Blocks is.. similar? More full featured for other languages?

wxPython is this what would actually run any Python projects?

A part of me wonders if this would all just be easier to set up on a windows PC and do it all there but if its possible to be able to do everything on the Pandora it would be nice and get me using it more!
 
^ I agree.


When this order is done, I'm going to get my Pandora set up for Python... it's also been sitting hardly used.


In about 3 weeks I'll be going away for 6 weeks (mid year festivals)... So I certainly want some way to write and run python while on the road.


I'll be curious what set up ends up working for you. I'll have a look myself when I get the time.
 
hi there,

you are confusing things.

about python: python is a highlevel interpreted language, which means it does not need to be compiled by the user. It actually does get translated into bytecode, but the interpreter does that automatically. so theres not much of a "development environment" to be set up. all you need is to install some python iteration on your system and you should be good to go. luckily your pandora came with python "preinstalled" :)

all you need to start coding is some text editor. geany is but one. it features syntax highlighting and makes things easier. you would write a python script using your text editor and then just run that script. python will take care of the rest.

about code::blocks: this is a package holding a multitude of things. therefore its quite huge. go read the documentation to figure out what you can do with it. if python is what your after, you wont need code::blocks.

about wxpython: this is kind of a python specific version of wxwidgets, a gui building toolkit. theres different ways to build graphical user interfaces with python. wxpython is one of them. others are tk/tcl, qt, gtk... your choice.
 
Geany or Codeblocks are IDE: Integrated Developpement Environement.

Basically, a nice editor, with syntax coloring, where you can setup a whole project (meany it let you compile / debug / other things from the IDE, no need to go to the command line).

Now, to develop on Python, you need a Python environnement.

The Pandora has one in its firmware, version 2.7.3, so you can do basic things. But if you want to do things with more exotics libraries (like KickAss said wxPython for example), you'll need wxPython, that contains Python 2.7.8 and many (many!) libs. (launch wxPython command line to have it).

Now, if you want Python 3, you'll need to launch the codeblocks pnd command line, that contains many (many!) dev. tools and libraries (Python 3 is one of them, but Python 2 is also accessible from there)...
 
Does Codeblocks do command completion for Python in its IDE?  That's the main thing I like in an IDE over a text editor, now that syntax colouring is pretty much standard (in coding text editors at least).

Re Python2 vs. Python3, I wouldn't worry too much about one versus the other.  Since python2.7 backported lots of the nicer things Python3 does, python2.7 is just left with a bit of crufty boilerplate code you sometimes have to write for some advanced stuff python3 does more clearly (python's object oriented super() call for instance).  Most code I write these days is python2/3 agnostic; I just blat a 'from __future__ import print_function' at the head.  A few modules have changed name; I just wrap the python3 import line in a 'try...except ImportError' block and 'import foo as bar' in the exception handler.
 
Ok, so downloaded wxPython, geany, and in  process of  downloading     codeblocks.

My precious is going to get a new lease on life!   :)

..... now i'm sorry the Alu cases never worked out. :(
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, you are all awesome! I'm going to keep it basic for now with geany and scale up as I need to. Been downloading a few android apps with courses as well as some of the pandora programming books from the repo code books programs so hopefully I'll make some progress. I've been doing a lot of non programming coding for a while (SQL, Excel VBA, Report Builder, lots of Excel formulas, all for work) so hopefully it will at least not leave me intimidated!
 
I wonder what the person who started this thread thinks? S/he has started two threads and has not posted anything to either since. I'm glad this discussion has helped others though :)
 
When I was starting out, I found Blitz Basic pretty neat:

http://www.blitzbasic.com/

Haven't used it in years, but it allowed me to create various little games, it handled all the complicated window/graphics/resource stuff, so I could just load sprites (one line of code) draw them (one line of code) move them (one line of code). It worked out pretty nicely, as the syntax is pretty close to C/C++ so transitioning over wasn't too bad either. I remember solving a lot of very basic problems in Blitz Basic (I remember wanting to be able to create as many bullet as I wanted, but not seeing how to do it with a fixed sized array, then after struggling to find the right Google search term I found out about dynamically sized containers) it is the sort of stuff you have to learn as a programmer, and I look back thinking it was cool to find that stuff out in a simple language rather than in C/C++ where there are a lot of other things to worry about!
 

_wb_ said:
If there is no else branch and the condition is simple, then I just write it all on one line.
Click to expand...
I dislike this, it means you can't set a break point sensibly (I personally find it harder to read/understand, but accept this as a personal preference, but the break point issue is quite frustrating).
 
Well my mother thinks me learning Python is a great idea and asks if there are any hard copy books she can get for me while she's in America! :D

I'm going to do some research online now, but any suggestions?
 
My Devboard feels dirty...

OMAP5_Pyra_Eclipse.png


quickly going to run "apt-get remove eclipse"
 
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I am genuinely impressed. Eclipse is not exactly the tightest of applications. Did you actually do anything more than start it up and close it again? Is it moderately usable for those that like to torture themselves?
 
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