Comments on: Python the new VBA ?

By: Tom Gleeson

Tom Gleeson — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:23:25 +0000

Thanks Conan,

I saw from the mailing-list that you’re working on adding PyTables support to the already excellent Picalo, looking forward to trying it out.

Another addition you might consider at some stage is tightly integrating Picalo tables with SQLite (perhaps using APSW http://bit.ly/2Dq2lm as it allows for easy coding of user-defined functions and SQLite virtual tables).

I’ve combined Excel, SQlite and Python to create my own “datasmithing” tool xLite http://bit.ly/3a4uz7 and find SQLite fast and capable of handling very large volumes of data.

I don’t look on SQLite as a “miniature database”, more as highly efficient memory-based SQL-speaking table engine with inbuilt on-dish caching facility http://bit.ly/dbysQ, a bit like a SQL PyTables I guess.

Tom

By: Conan Albrecht

Conan Albrecht — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:14:46 +0000

Great post. BTW, Picalo will soon have a state of the art table engine (via PyTables), so the in-memory list-based table limitation will be gone. It’s C-based and automatically does disk caching. I’m excited to get it finished.

By: TAG Cubes – SQLite Star Query Part III « Gobán Saor

TAG Cubes – SQLite Star Query Part III « Gobán Saor — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:06:58 +0000

[...] than my preferred Python (did I mention that xLite now embeds Python in Excel, no, well it does, Python the newVBA ?), having failed to get around multi-threading issues with callbacks to Python in both the ODBC and [...]

By: Tom Gleeson

Tom Gleeson — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:17:14 +0000

@matigro

Agreed, I like Python simply because I can get things done with it. The same reason I like VBA, C, SQL etc. , fit for purpose, minimum ceremony, that’s all I ask.

Tom

By: matigro

matigro — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:44:37 +0000

It’s nice to read an article from someone that is not a programming language fanatic and see that python can solve his problems in an easy way.
Python is not ‘the language’, it is not the solution to all problems. But makes our day’s work more easy!
just a comment: python is not like vb scripts. Macros are always runs as scripts. Python makes the first time you run the script, a compiled program. Always the second run is faster than first. But if you change something in the code, it recompiled and you never know of that.
Regards,

By: gobansaor

gobansaor — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:01:50 +0000

Joseph,

Calm down, it’s only a programming language! I expect these sort of rants from the “young folks”; there are many things to get excited about in life, but not programming language wars.

Firing people , i.e. affecting people’s “real lives”, would I hope be based on something more substantial than expressing an opinion on something as trivial as a programming tool!

I’m a relative new comer to the business, 1978, but I’ve worked with a lot of tools, most average, some excellent, some atrocious, but as long as I got paid, it made very little difference to me what the tool was. Perl by the way would be up there in the excellent category, as would PL/SQL, MUMPS, SAP Config, ESSBASE, Excel VBA.

As I said, when others who pay me pick the tool I just get on with it, but when I get to pick my own tools I tend to choose based on (a) fit for purpose (b) cost effectiveness (being self employed) and (c) my own totally subjective “would I like to spend my time working with this” attitude. Being “un-fair” to Perl by choosing Python doesn’t come into it.

To paraphrase, William Munny as he pointed the shotgun at Little Bill Daggett in the closing scenes of Unforgiven, “Fair’s got nothin’ to do with it”. But I guess that’s what you say as you fire another employee for daring to express an opinion contrary to your own.

Tom

By: Joseph B Cohen

Joseph B Cohen — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:35:30 +0000

Are we back to ‘my python’ can beat ‘your perl’ ? ANYTHING you can do in python you have been able to do in perl for a ‘long time now’. And this above ‘It’s powerful, fun to use, easy to learn, function orientated and I even like the use of human-eye-friendly ????? indentation rather than braces and delimiters as a code grouping mechanism.’ would get you fired if you worked for me.
I’ll tell you what I think – working in the computer field since 1968 – it’s called perspective : python is a perl ripoff ! Change some syntax, steal the C libraries and wow ! a new language.
Quote from King Solomon – Ecclesiastes(spelling?) “there is nothing new under the sun”. Works as well today, in the computer field, as in did two thousand years ago .

By: Python to replace VB6 … « Gobán Saor

Python to replace VB6 … « Gobán Saor — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:59:21 +0000

[...] 5, 2008 by gobansaor … well at least for me. As I discussed previously I’ve been seriously investigating using Python as my primary datasmithing scripting language, [...]

By: Michael Wexler

Michael Wexler — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:20:59 +0000

Not to mention that SPSS also links to Python as its scripting language of choice.

See http://www.spss.com/devcentral/ for more details.

By: gobansaor

gobansaor — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:30:01 +0000

Dan,

You’re right, and as I do a lot of work with the JVM via Talend and Pentaho PDI and am actively looking at WaveMaker I must look into Jython.

Tom