Programming background; 1975-1978: FORTRAN, BASIC, some machine language/assembler. 1988: A summer of FORTRAN. Post-1988: No programming until past 1.5 yr.
FORTRAN was used during pursuit of physics degree. Others while playing around developing games for minicomputers. Structured programming paradigm the only one I've used. Currently have been doing scripting in a custom scripting environment at work to make my life easier. This is on Solaris-based systems. Have recently augmented the custom scripting environment with Perl scripting to give me more power and error-checking capabilities (Others have started to use my scripts. They don't always use them as I intended.). Perl is a new language for me. Goals: Learn Python. While learning Python, learn all of the good C.Sc. stuff that I should have learned the first go-around, Learn Java and C/C++. Reevaluate. At home where I will be doing the brunt of my study, I am working on a W7 laptop. Currently continue to work on scripting projects at work, replacing Perl scripts with Python scripts. My wife, who is a Montessori teacher, has immediate need of programs for her students. Have currently outlined a design for a program to drill spelling words, which will have to have audio record/playback capabilities. Hope to get this and others done this summer before the new school year starts. I am certain that my wife will continue to have new projects for me as I complete the current ones. Hope to have educational software solutions to my wife's requests that are usable whether the students are at home or in class. Finally to the question: With the stated goals above, would it be better to invest time now at the front-end in learning a powerful IDE, or am I better served, while learning Python, to stick with IDLE and the shell and worry about an IDE later? I am willing to invest time now on learning an IDE if it will save me time overall. IF it would be beneficial now to learn an IDE, then it begs the question as to whether I should search for the best IDE for Python, then later the best one for Java, etc., or, instead, look for the best one that can handle all of the languages I plan to learn and use. Thanks for any guidance you can provide! -- Cheers! boB _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
