Learning python; introduction

Submitted by Nalle Berg on Fri, 10/28/2022 - 09:07

I am a PHP programmer mostly. PHP does not love the desktop, even if you use e.g. PHPDesktop and its like. It kinda works, but it doesn't really work as other desktop apps. It can run there, but it is in a weird environment.

Actually I have started twice with it in PHP-desktop to try and make a databased (MariaDB) cook book. That'll be in Norwegian, but my code is always (bar one programme i wrote for the madam) in English, so the code from me will always be open and free (as in speech, not necessarily beer) so it's easy to fork.
Anyway, I didn't get far with it before I thought to myself «This doesn't look like I want it!».

It ended up with me looking for a new programming language that would fit well on the desktop, could use a database and had a usable GUI (Graphic User Interface). If I also cold use it on the web, that would be an advantage, but if it couldn't, that would not be a showstopper .

The obvious choice would be C, C++ or even C#. The not so obvious choice would be Rust.  Now, the C-languages are good. Very good - but not exactly what i was looking for. Rust is mostly for core programming. Mozilla has programmed the core element in Rust since Firefox54 or there about.

Still not me....

I looked at Perl, but even if you can add a GUI extension to it, and you can compile it, it didn't «talk to me».

Then I looked at Python. Now that's more what I was looking for. First I found out that there are several GUI-implementations for it, and you can compile it.

As it turns out, a friend of mine is also using python, and that helps too. He can give me hints when needed and help me along.

Also I have always been fascinated by python as it amongst other things uses indent to make subroutines and a few other peculiarities.

This was what I ended up with and in the next part I'll tell you how i Installed it and made it work. Though it's quite easy tasks, they have to be done in the right order to work as supposed.

This will be a course, teaching python programming while I learn the language myself. It will be thorough, fast and a bit demanding. But if you follow this course, Google a lot, you will learn the language.
This course is aiming for the Windows desktop, but a most of the code will run happily compiled under Mac or Linux. I just do not have a Linux box right now and I do not want to work in «Windows Subsystem for Linux» even though I have that installed to get Linux command line. One can do more there, when it comes to tools for fixing stuff both locally and in a network.

What do you need to follow this course?

  • You must understand written English. Quite technical at times.
  • You have a fairly good understanding how your Windows PC works.
  • You want to learn Python and a bit o' database too
  • You have your own Windows computer that you can install and code on
  • You are not afraid of Googeling terms and stuff you don't understand and work a bit to get the understanding of the problem at hand.

That's all, really! So then both you and I will learn Python and the things we need to code what we need. All routines and code examples have been tested and found working, but only in my environment.

Have an unordinary nice day!

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