Wow, when they say Python is portable, they really do mean portable.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Well lately I've picked back up on learning python, and I don't like to just sit there and read stuff or do little bits at a time. I learn best when I go through a ton of frustrations which hasn't been much with python, just annoyances when I don't get the syntax right every now and again (C++ put me in fits of rage, python is fun :) ). So I thought the best way to learn the language was to do a project. So I decided to make a program for my chemistry class for various types of tedious calculations (ones that involve looking at the periodic table every time). My friend asked me if he could use it in his chemistry class. Well it worked on Windows!! Yay! I can hold off on learning how to port something once again. I tried it in my Virtualbox of WinXP, and it only took a download of python from the website, and now I can execute them.

Now he wants to know if I can make it more clickable...he wants me to build a gui. Blah...
I don't know any other gui builders that are as easy to use as Visual Studio, and I don't even know how to use arrays in Visual Basic.

Oddly enough the hard part is finding the info...for over 100 elements. Oh and if you're curious, this is the code so far. :D



#!/usr/bin/env python

import math

a=0
b=0
c=0
d=0
e=0
f=0
g=0
h=0
i=0
j=0
k=0
l=0
m=0
n=0
o=0
p=0
q=0
r=0
s=0
t=0
u=0
v=0
w=0
x=0
y=1
z=0

question = y

while question == y:
print " Chemistry Handbook version 1.0"
print ""
print "Enter a number for any operation you wish to perform. All elements are entered with their abbreviations (i.e. 'C' for Carbon)."
print ""
print " 1. Mass Calculator"
print " 2. Something"
print " 3. Something"
print " 4. Something"
print " etc."
print ""

option = input("Which operation would you like to perform? ")

#Formula Mass calculator
if option == 1:
Ac=227.028
Al=23.982
Am=243
Sb=121.757
Ar=39.948
As=74.922
At=210
Ba=137.327
Bk=247
Be=9.012
Bi=208.98
Bh=262
B=10.811
Br=79.904
Cd=112.411
Ca=40.078
Cf=251
C=12.011
Ce=140.115
Cs=132.9054
Cl=51.9961
Co=58.9332
Cu=63.546
Cm=247
Db=262
Dy=162.503
Es=252
Er=167.263
Eu=151.965
Fm=257
F=18.9984
Fr=223
Gd=157.253
Ga=69.723
Ge=72.61
Au=196.96654
Hf=178.492
Hs=265
He=4.002602
Ho=164.93032
H=1.0079
In=114.82
I=126.90447
Ir=192.223
Fe=55.847
Kr=83.801
La=138.9055
Lr=262
Pb=207.21
Li=6.941
Lu=174.967
Mg=24.305
Mn=54.938
Mt=266
Md=258
Hg=200.593
Mo=95.941
Nd=144.24
Ne=20.1797
Np=237.048
Ni=58.6934
Nb=92.90638
N=14.00674
No=259
Os=190.21
O=15.9994
Pd=106.421
P=30.9737624
Pt=195.083
Pu=244
Po=209
K=39.0983
Pr=140.907653
Pm=145
Pa=231.0359
Ra=226.025
Rn=222
Re=186.2071
Rh=102.9055
Rb=85.4678
Ru=101.07
Rf=261
Sm=150.36
Sc=44.955910
Sg=263
Se=78.96
Si=28.0855
Ag=107.8682
Na=22.989768
Sr=87.62
S=32.066
Ta=180.9479
Tc=98
Te=127.603
Tb=158.92534
Tl=204.3833
Th=232.0381
Tm=168.93421
Sn=118.710
Ti=47.88
W=183.85
U=238.0289
V=50.9415
Xe=131.29
Yb=173.04
Y=88.90585
Zn=65.39
Zr=91.224

mass = input("Formula: ")
print "Atomic mass = ", mass, "grams per mole"

#Element Information
if option == 2:
Ac = ['Actinium',1878] #Not real!
einfo = input("Which element would you like information on? ")
print "Element Name: ",einfo[0]
print "Year discovered: ",einfo[1]
question = input("Return to main menu? [y/n]: ")
question = input("Return to main menu? [y/n]: ")
if question != y:
break

[RiceMonster]

Python runs in an interpreter that has been ported to different OS's. Of course it's portable.


As for arrays in Visual Basic, they're not much different than other languages. Same basic concept.

For example:

Dim myArray() as Integer = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

[Legendary_Bibo]

Python runs in an interpreter that has been ported to different OS's. Of course it's portable.


As for arrays in Visual Basic, they're not much different than other languages. Same basic concept.

For example:

Dim myArray() as Integer = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

oh, that is easy. Hmmm...I guess I could build a gui for it, and it would just take a few tweaks of the language and I should be able to get one. Do you know of a program like Visual Studios that actually matches its ease of use? I've only used the free VS, and even then it seems to be quite effective.

[RiceMonster]

Well there is glade for making gtk+ interfaces for python programs. I don't know much about it, though.

MonoDevelop also has an interface designer.

[ve4cib]

Python on Windows ships by default with Tkinter (the Python version of the Tk UI toolkit), so if you want maximum portability in your UI I'd go for that. The Tkinter package is also available through the Ubuntu repositories (though it is not included by default).

Building a UI in Tk isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but it's not bad. Certainly no worse than designing a webpage in HTML + CSS. You can define a grid for your layout, and you just drop every element (button, label, scrollbar, etc...) onto it through code.

Several years ago I wrote a pretty simple RPN calculator using Python & Tk. This was my very first attempt at writing a UI in Python, so it's rough around the edges, but it might give you some ideas:

http://sites.google.com/site/ve4cib/rpncalculator

Documentation for how to use Tkinter can be found here: http://wiki.python.org/moin/TkInter

[Legendary_Bibo]

I'll look into both of your guys' suggestions.

[forrestcupp]

I used to use PyGTK. Glade makes it easy like Visual Basic.

But honestly, if you're not programming a GUI, any programming language out there is portable. If you're not programming WinAPI, even a lot of GUI toolkits are portable.

[WinterMadness]

I think netbeans has a python plugin so you can make GUIs and code