SimpleShelf is done!
Mostly! And just version 1.0! But I'm celebrating anyway!
Soon, the details shall emerge of SimpleShelf, an application to retrieve and store book information from the Library of Congress and other Z39.50 sources. But not now.
I used Python and wxPython, along with several additional libraries (many thanks to Aaron Lav for his PyZ3950 libraries and assistance). SimpleShelf was my first program, my "viability test"of using Python, and Python passed flawlessly (in other words, all flaws in design, coding and execution are mine).
Some things I learned:
- XML is good as a storage format, and slow as an object-access format.
- Objects are good.
- Python objects are even better.
- Python 2.3 had a major speed increase when combined with wxPython 2.4.x SimpleShelf took about 30 seconds to load using Python 2.2; it now takes less than 10.
- A GUI wxWindows designer would save me much time and headaches.
- WingIDE, an IDE with source code browser and auto-completion was invaluable.
I'm very pleased with how SimpleShelf has worked out. It's a very valuable program to me (I've catalogued over 520 books that are either in my personal library or that I've read), and a great learning experience. Should be - it's over a year in the making...