Python Review

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Generic Explanation from Python.org
Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java.

Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. There are interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac, MFC). New built-in modules are easily written in C or C++. Python is also usable as an extension language for applications that need a programmable interface.

The Python implementation is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, on Windows, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, and many other platforms. If your favorite system isn't listed here, it may still be supported, if there's a C compiler for it. Ask around on news:comp.lang.python -- or just try compiling Python yourself.

The Python implementation is copyrighted but freely usable and distributable, even for commercial use.

My Experience
I found Python to be a very strange animal indeed. Python allows you to write code very concise, short, just like a scripting language. In fact, I wrote the script also in Vbscript to compare and it both contained roughly the same set of lines.

Easy file system access, easy everything except for the indentations. For those who have not written Python, there are no curly braces but actual whitespace indentations are required. Which for most people find a strange hurdle, but I found it just made it easier to read, forced you not to be sloppy.

The cons, I did not find a robust GUI solution. Don't get me wrong, Python has several choices but not comparable to VB etc. Distribution I think bothered me the most which is that when you compile using Py2exe to make a native python script into an .exe which can then be distributed to other machines, it created a "dist" folder with all kinds of co-reqs to make the file run.

I did not like that all. Let's say you work in a enterprise environment a someone needs a scripto to solve a problem. You can either provide them a vbscript in one file that they can run natively or you can provide them a directory like 8 MB full all kinds of files. For the non techie, that would not fly to well.

So. If you have an application which is going to be on a server or workstation where you know python can be installed, you should be fine. If you are looking to distribute some code to mutiple machines, stick with scripting languages like VBscript.

All in all, I give Python a B+.