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Python 2.3 & 2.5


daisuke

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Hi there. I should really ask this at python forum but I also have another question related to learning houdini so let me ask :) .

I have a book on python 2.3 to learn, and I believe that the latest python version is 2.5 I would to know that if there is much different in them.. can I continue learning this book? I hear that version 3 will be quite different???

My another question is that it has topics on 'System programming', 'GUI programming' and 'Internet Programming'.. should I read 'Internet programming'? WHat topic should I focus on?

thanks.

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There are no too many features of 2.3 that was abandoned/changed in 2.5 what effectively wouldn't let you work with 2.3 experience under 2.5 interpreter. So generally knowledge about 2.3 won't hurt your Houdini9 skills. Changes from 2.3 to 2.5 are more about adding features (like sets, decorators or new style classes) then replacing whole piece of language. There are also some serious changes in underlying architecture and high level objects but you won't touch in now I suppose.

Some most visible changes are made in standard modules. There are addition here, replacements and such. For example most of the string methods previously present in "str" module are now standard string object's methods (from 2.2, 2.3, 2.4? I'm not sure - it's just an example of possibly changes).

In 2.5 you have also ElementTree module in standard - what can be very handy in XML programming.

The are plenty of 2.5 valid materials on web so after reading your favourite book just skim through "Python recipes" freely available - and you will grab all news from that.

As to chapters for choosing it's really hard to say. Theoretically, in Houdini, you won't be affected by web programming or Tkinter (you wish you don't ;) ). But this stay true and false at the same time for almost everything. In Houdini you work mostly in HOM which is quite a bit different from any Python standard module or library. So you stay just with Python syntax and your skills of writing efficient loops or using generators (what is tricky for beginners).

On the other hand, there are number of tools and technologies out there based on XML - so sooner or later you'll want to use it. Also GUI programming (specially with QT not Python old standard Tkinter) is a must. So HOM is not affected by any special Python modules but simply integrating Houdini with pipeline made in Python involves knowledge of a number of fields - all depend on your needs.

In general I'd say that the most important thing you should know is a idea of OOP and languages concepts as they are described in "Dive into Python" book (not for beginners though). From that point it's a matter of hours to research new module you feel you need at present time.

hope this help,

sy.

Edited by SYmek
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On the other hand, there are number of tools and technologies out there based on XML - so sooner or later you'll want to use it. Also GUI programming (specially with QT not Python old standard Tkinter) is a must. So HOM is not affected by any special Python modules but simply integrating Houdini with pipeline made in Python involves knowledge of a number of fields - all depend on your needs.

Thank you for the writeup! What's QT?

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<br />SYmek, thank you the link. Why do you think QT is important? Sorry i'm still begenning to learn in this field. Sorry to bother you!<br />
<br /><br /><br />

Because this is very popular, very powerful, well acclaimed, cross platform, cross language GUI tool kid with python bindings. The only alternative to it is Wx - which is little odd. The only problem could be license schema. Generally it's commercial but they published free version for non-commercial use in open source environment. Basically as long as you don't develop commercial application you can use it for free. Because Houdini don't have scriptable GUI toolkid, if you want to have some widget or custom control, you must use one of python libraries. Among those Qt is perhaps the best choice.

cheers,

sy.

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