On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 5:34 PM, DeLong, Eric <EDeLong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I keep waiting for Hans Boldt to chime in on this... <vbg> He was one of
the earliest "Python on IBM" advocates, and quite prolific about jamming
Python into conversation around here.
Ah, so apparently I'm the new Hans Boldt. Well, he did go to
university where I was born (and I was born there because that same
university is where my dad was doing his graduate work).
I'm still intrigued by python, but sadly it is well off my radar so far...
But it's soooo easy! If you use Linux or a modern Mac, you already
have Python installed. On Windows, a friendly binary installer is a
simple download away. I do think it's best to learn Python on one of
the more common platforms, simply because then you can be confident
that the language behavior matches the documentation. It really
doesn't take long to learn the basics, and if you already have
experience with class-based objects from Java or C++, then Python's
OOP model will be picked up quickly as well. The official docs have
an easy-to-follow tutorial section, so you don't have to buy a book or
go hunting all over the Web for learning materials (though those are
also quite plentiful).
Tip: If you want to download Python for Windows, get version 2.7.x
(currently 2.7.3), as that is closest to iSeries Python, and it's the
most mature and well-supported version in the greater Python
ecosystem.
John
