[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 1. What's involved in a port of a C program into Python? (drawmap is > offered in a number of linux distributions btw.)
It really (really) depends on the C program -- C's so flexible that you can write in a "Pythonish" style (specifically, avoiding pointer tricks, keeping OS-specific stuff to a minimum, and using good functional / data abstractions) or in a style that's so obfuscated as to make any sort of translation impossible. The flip side of that is that Python is flexible enough to accommodate many programming styles. It sounds like this program basically parses an input file and produces an output file, so I would bet that you can find some existing code that will read the input file, and some other existing code that will write the output file. Then you just have to write the middle part. > 2. Seeing Python hailed as a good language for learning programming, > how do you > rate it as a lifetime language? (I can imagine that many people have > settled into one language for doing the remainder of their life's work. If > I am pressed, I will choose Perl at this point.) Eep, Perl! Once a polyglot, always a polyglot. My choice of language depends on the context. For quick web stuff, PHP (O! How I hate thee!). For quick manipulation of files and/or using lots of external programs, shell. For just about everything else, Python. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor