[lug] VisualBasic'ish program and Linux (yikes!)

[Kelly Ross Brock]

Howdy,

> Hey, I'm not into much non-web development work, but a friend
> of mine at work
> is a big VB fan and wants something similar to Linux
> (something useable, not
> vaporish) -- so far, I've referred him to Visual TCL, idle
> (for Python), Glade
> (for C/C++/Perl/whatnot) and Cygnus's C++ tools.
>
> Can anything think of a good high-level prototyping IDE for a
> high-level
> language that's reasonably stable? I've been selling him on
> how great Python
> is, so if you know of a good Python one (I haven't found
> anything but a Glade
> Python generator, and wxWindows/wxDesigner, both of which
> need help), that
> would be even better.
>
> Any suggestions would be great.
>
> Personally, I'm a big fan of pyGtk, but I think he's looking
> for a prototyping
> system.

	I just finished an entire 3D modelling and animation prototype tool system
for work using Python and wxPython.  While I admit it had it's share of
annoyances, wxPython and Boa Constructor were pretty much a dream team for
my requirements.  A good portion of the prototype was based on OpenGL
widgets that I had to program myself, but I'd say about 50 percent was
generated by Boa.  The only major problem was getting the Boa generated
items to communicate with a custom publish/subscribe based system.  It
wasn't difficult but did mean modifying code by hand in several places.

	Overall, when compared to most other languages of the same type and the
related tools available, I think I'll keep using the Boa/Python combo for
prototyping.  I don't know much about pyGTK so can't give any comparisons
worth much, I made my choice based on supplied abilities for drag and drop
interractions, tools available and the cleanliness of the programming API.
Given those items (about 6 months ago) I chose wxPython out of everything
else I looked out.  Can't remember why but I don't regret it.

	Regards,

	KB