"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." (Robert A. Heinlein)

Friday, 25 September 2015

The quest for new languages: Python

It happens, sometimes, that I download a “new” programming language or a framework or library in order to give it a try. Of course the word “new” is relative to my personal or professional experience, mostly orbiting around the Java galaxy. This time the “new” programming language is Python. Python is, of course, a widely used and far from being a new programming language but I never had the thought of giving it a try before.

Python on Eclipse: PyDev

I'm willing to learn new languages but I'm not so eager to install and use a new IDE while doing it. I so went looking for a Python development Eclipse plug-in and the choice fell on PyDev. Installing PyDev on Eclipse has been quite simple, just matter of selecting it on Eclipse Market Place and completing the installation wizard.
Before creating the first project PyDev plug-in needs to know where python interpreter is. There is a handy automatic search feature but I preferred the manual configuration in order to have more meaningful configuration names.

As the interpreter configuration has been done I only had to create a new PyDev Python project
then creating a new Python module
and writing some code (yes I know just another hello-world)

Python on Netbeans

While I use Eclipse on my desktop computer I still prefer Netbeans for programming on the small-screen-small-keyboard EEEPC900. Installing Python plug-ins on Netbeans might be e little more old-fashioned than with Eclipse but it is well documented and not difficult at all. I downloaded the plug-ins zip archive from here and extracted its content in a directory, then from Netbeans plug-ins setup window I selected the extracted files and started the installation wizard
After the usual “Next”, “Agree” buttons the plug-in installation wizard completed. Here too the Python interpreter path has to be configured in the Python Platform Manager window.
Once the Python platform has been set-up I've been ready to create my first Python project
and start coding in Python on the EEEPC too.

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