There's certainly an element of truth to that, yeah. On the other hand the biggest thing with leaning Python in practice - and using it in a program you use every day is the best way to do that. If you every have to do anything more than 3 times then there's really no excuse not to work with a Script Editor always open, and if you have one open anyway, you might as well learn how to write it better!
There's certainly a lot of... oddities to using it in XSI (having to use 2.5 in Linux, having to live with no print statement on the PC, modules being a bit of a faff etc) but if that's the difference between using it every day and using it a couple of times a week I'd say that's a good compromise to make. You just have to make sure you to keep pushing yourself to learn Python as opposed to 'Python in XSI'. On 1 May 2012 16:30, Bradley Gabe <[email protected]> wrote: > I'd helped to train a bunch of people into Python for XSI over a range of > time, so my advice would be with respect to the process of learning. > > First learn Python. > Then work on Python in the context of XSI. > > Why? > > It's important for you to understand the syntax and logic structure of > Python as its own entity before you inject the idiosyncrasies of XSI, with > ActiveX, and the Object Model. > > You want to review each data type in Python, learn about their built in > methods, learn how to convert between them. During this process you will > quickly come to realize how powerful Python is compared to VBscript, and > how Python rewards you for being clever which makes it more fun to work > with. The O'Reilly book on learning basic > Python<http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Python-Edition-Mark-Lutz/dp/0596513984>is > excellent for learning in this structure. > > From personal experience, I had been tinkering with Python in XSI for > about a year (after many years of coding in jscript) before I shifted into > building a pipeline using a Python-based web development language that had > nothing to do with XSI. It was only after my experience dealing with > building custom data structures, and eventually messing around with the > guts of Python to manipulate information at the core that I really > developed an appreciation and love for the language, and ultimately > progressed towards being a power user once back in XSI. > > -B >
