Nobody's interested in Python ??

Submitted by ciao on Fri, 04/28/2017 - 21:09
Forums: 
Python

So ...

Maybe no-one can get it to work, or ...

Maybe it's so easy that no-one needs any help, or ...

What?

I have a theory that VB is the most popular journaling language because it's the default, and a lot of people don't know how to change it (the language choice option is fairly well hidden, I think).

NXJournaling - Mon, 05/01/2017 - 05:47

Some large corporations intentionally stay a few releases behind the curve; this means that there are currently a lot of folks using NX 9 (or earlier), which doesn't support python. I'd guess that we'll see more interest as they move to NX 10 and beyond.

hallvard.paulse... - Tue, 01/02/2018 - 23:01

This is my first post in this forum. Forgive my ignorance.

My corporation just switched to NX11 and TeamCenter11. (From NX9 and TC 10.1)

I am a newcommer to both NX (well, been a regular modelling/drafting user for about 1 year now) and Python, but have programmed in other languages (C, Fortran, Basic dialects) in the past.

Due to some bad experiences with MicroSoft derived technology in the past, I would prefer to use a programming language which is controlled by somebody else than a private enterprice.

But there doesn't seem to be much activity surrounding NX-Python, so maybe it is not a good idea?

Regards,
Hallvard

NXJournaling - Wed, 01/03/2018 - 05:24

While journaling has been around for a while now (since NX 3, if I remember correctly), Python support was only added recently (NX 10). I suspect that we'll see more Python activity as users and corporations move to NX 10 or later.

ciao - Tue, 05/02/2017 - 05:53

CAE folks seem to love Python (or, at least, they like the Python-accessible libraries like NumPy and SciPy).

Newbies love it because they think weak typing is a benefit (at first).

It's good for people like you because there is no license checking, so I think you can do whatever you want (though I'm not a lawyer).

Onur - Fri, 05/05/2017 - 02:06

Is it easier to do things with Python compared to VB .Net. I am just starting with Journaling, so I would like to start with the correct (easiest) coding language at this point. And this will probably be the only language I will learn for a very long time.

And for the future, is it a better investment to start with Python rather than VB .Net?

ciao - Sat, 05/06/2017 - 06:42

Some people are pretty passionate about their favorite programming language, and you'll see lots of heated debates about the merits of one over another.

I have only written a small amount of Python, but I've written quite a lot of VB and C#. I'm not a programmer.

I'd say that Python code *looks* easier, because it's often shorter. There are no declarations, for example, and no begin/end constructs. But it's weakly typed, so it's harder for the compiler to find your mistakes for you. My personal preference is to do a little more typing in return for getting better help.

Another important issue is that the NX Python API is fairly new, so it has some rough edges. Also, very few people use it, so it's harder to get help.

My guess is that VB will slowly die over the next 5 to 10 years. Microsoft are already letting it lag behind C#.

The main problem with learning NX programming is the complexity of the API, not the language. So, once you've learned how to program NX in VB, switching to Python should be fairly easy, and switching to C# would be very easy.

If you're a complete beginner, I would recommend using VB, because that will make it easier to get help.

eh - Mon, 03/19/2018 - 09:53

I started to teach my self python and
I found it very attractive to me.

eh - Sun, 04/22/2018 - 00:27

When I'll be filling safely
with my learned of python
I'll try to translate some
of my vb journals to python.