Guido van Rossum's Python Circus, that is.
Yeah, Python. Years ago, I tried to learn it, mainly because some program I wanted to modify was written in it. I even went so far as to buy a great big book on how to put your budgie down Python programming. It didn't help.
Mainly, I think I didn't like the syntax.
Eventually, I learned Ruby, which has been well suited to the little scripty things I tend to write in support of larger projects. But... Ruby and its libraries haven't been well maintained these past few years; in particular, the Qt bindings are horribly out of date.
I've started on a test & measurement framework in Ruby, and in the overall plan as it currently stands that makes sense but, taking the bigger picture? First, Python is better supported, and I'd have the option of doing local GUIs in Qt5; second, Python has gotten quite popular in the T&M world, so customers are likely to be familiar with it already; and, third, Python v3 seems to be (aside from the syntax issue) much improved from the ancient version I looked at back in the mid-1990s or whenever it was.
So, I may end up scrapping (or, rather, translating) the work so far, and switching to Python for the project. Have to see what Windows support looks like, since some of this stuff does need to be cross-platform.
Another project for the coming winter....
And maybe the AGROS configuration utility gets translated, too. It needs a do-over anyway, if AGROS is to be supported on new platforms (mainly the new Cortex M-series MCUs with new and different peripherals), and I find myself really missing AGROS as I struggle with FreeRTOS, vendor-supplied device drivers that don't integrate nicely, and the lack of a coherent driver framework.
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