My friend and I are computer science majors who just landed a job as computer consultants for a R & D company. We are going to be spending the next 3 – 4 months planning, analyzing, and designing a new integrated system that we will have to implement. I’ve been paying attention to a lot of threads about how a lot of companies pick technologies based on hype, and I’ve also read a lot of articles saying how scripting languages like python and lisp kept them a head above their competitors with fewer bugs and less of a development time. I feel that my friend and I are pretty competent C++ programmers but even so I know how long it can take to develop applications and I don’t want to be wasting the companies time being that this is the first huge undertaking I’ve ever done. So what I want to know is this – is it possible to learn one of the languages in three to four months time, enough so that I would be able to produce real software solutions? I’m looking for opinions on the development time when one only has intermediate knowledge of these languages compared to C++. If it is possible then which language would be the best solution. My requirements for a language is it is cross platform and has a quick learning process and a fast development process. Thank you -Dave Neubelt [edited by - progme on March 1, 2003 8:46:52 PM]

Learn python.

You can learn to be productive in a matter of weeks, it is cross-platform, and lends itself well to rapid development.
You can also very easily write extension modules in C++.

[ Start Here ! | How To Ask Smart Questions | Recommended C++ Books | C++ FAQ Lite | Function Ptrs | CppTips Archive ]
[ Header Files | File Format Docs | LNK2001 | C++ STL Doc | STLPort | Free C++ IDE | Boost C++ Lib | MSVC6 Lib Fixes ]

Do you have any recommended links for starting out with python. Such as a good IDE and some tutorials?

To visit imperatively and explore toroughly : Main python page

Hint : Lots of links on the left navigation bar.

Bookmarks I keep on my browser toolbar :

Main documentation page

Python Quick Ref - only goes to 2.1, check the release notes for differences in 2.2 (or 2.3 alpha )
Vaults of Parnassus - module repository
Python Cookbook - online recipe repository

Tutorials :

One is included in the distribution.
More can be found on the main site.
Or use Google.

See also Python City, a Python portal.

IDE :

The python distribution includes a basic Tk-based IDE called IDLE .
ActiveState sells a Visual Studio Python plugin

The win32all module also contains a (windows only) IDE.
The site also has a Mozilla Sidebar for Python (help search...)

There is also an Emacs mode for Python.

I usually either just use IDLE or IDLE and XEmacs.

Books I own :

* Python Cookbook - ed. O'Reilly (print version of the above)
* Python Pocket Reference - ed. O'Reilly
* Python Essential Reference - ed. New Riders

Graphics-related
* Pygame
* PyOpenGL

Finally, you can use the Boost Python library to easily tie python and C++ (rather than C) code.

And I suppose you can find newsgroups on your own

[ Start Here ! | How To Ask Smart Questions | Recommended C++ Books | C++ FAQ Lite | Function Ptrs | CppTips Archive ]
[ Header Files | File Format Docs | LNK2001 | C++ STL Doc | STLPort | Free C++ IDE | Boost C++ Lib | MSVC6 Lib Fixes ]

[edited by - Fruny on March 1, 2003 10:48:01 PM]