I started today from scratch. I already know Python is meant to be THE scripting language for the ArcGIS platform Geoprocessing Framework. Big deal. Like everybody is supposed to go “ohhh wow!”. I see it as something like, okay, it could be a postive side effect: I will learn this super cool language this afternoon, and tomorrow I will have fun: create some models in Arctoolbox, see their Python code, and try to figure out (btw, how many patches for their one-month-old version yet?) and start typing code directly into my editor. The Geoprocessing object model in ArcGIS is pretty simple, we all hope not excessively so. Time will tell.
Besides, I am excited to learn the language. My aunt´s fun on me: I am always late… Some claim the Zen of Python is Dutch-like, I hope the language itself is easier than Nederlands. My confidence is: tomorrow I will start teaching it myself. Let us not fall short of ambition.
Before the real turoial begins, Meneer Van Rossum promises to “whet our appetites“. So it reads, among others, that Python code is shorter. Good, I always preferred shorter literature.Now seriously, it says “the high-level data types allow you to express complex operations in a single statement”. I will try to figure out what those higher level data types are and how to use´em. I wanna see also what the guys at ESRI thought on this one.
Filed under: GIS, geoprocessing, python, scripting
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