My recommendation would be to go with PyGame, but as you note this does require some installation work. Unfortunately as soon as you start getting into being a software developer, the kid gloves come off and you have to learn a lot about how software works. I'm not aware of any one-stop user-friendly installer that will get you up and running in Python with an eye towards games. My best advice is to do the installation for him.
-Chris On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 4:22 PM, John Velman <vel...@cox.net> wrote: > Reply-To: > > I'm looking for a way to get a bright (of course) high school student > started with Python. He has a recent iMac. He is pretty computer literate, > and knows the names of some computer languages, but no experience in > programming, and little experience with text editing per se. He is > particularly interested in games. Is at a stage of trying to decide what he > is going to do in college, and was asking me about getting started with > computer programming. > > I recommend Python as a good starting language. It would be nice if there > was a simple IDE that works with python without a lot of setting up > options, moving things around in the file system, and so on. I don't want > to throw him into Vim or Emacs. > > I'd like him to get to something interesting (GUI, very simple games) soon. > I showed him some examples from Pythonista on my iPad, and he was impressed > at what could be done in ~ 100 lines of Python. > > For now, it would be really nice if he could work with the Python already > on his iMac, and minimal other setup. Maybe the TKInter that comes with the > iMac would also be a place to start GUI. It looks like installing > TextWrangler might be a good choice for an editor. Or just plain TextEdit? > > I've looked at PyGames, and done a little other googling, and every place > I've looked says install this, install that, use Home Brew, use Ports, > don't use Ports, be sure and set such and such an option, be sure and get a > version greater than x.y...Things that I might do, but I've been at this, > at least part time, more or less forever. > > We need something than one can just do, and then learn while doing. Well, > something Mac like. > > (I myself haven't used Python much for a while, am trying to develop one > good app in Objective C on an hour or so a day. I use the Xcode IDE, Vim > outside of Xcode. Am personally a dynasaur, am mailing this via Mutt.) > > Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. > > John V. > _______________________________________________ > Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig > unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/Pythonmac-SIG >
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