Which programming language?

[jimsmith93]

As part of my remote observatory project, I have been experimenting on my RPI 2 with gPhoto2 for controlling the cameras(using the CLI) and GertBot(using the provided gertbot gui program) for controlling the various motors required. So far, it has all gone fairly smoothly. I can make stepper motors turn and I can take pictures!

My next step is to write a GUI based program that will allow me to control both the cameras and the motors. I thought I could do this in Python. But then I thought Python might not be the best choice. What about Java or C?

I'm happy to learn any new language to create my program.

If anybody has tried anything like what I plan to do, I would be grateful for any suggestions as to the best way forward. Thanks

[danjperron]

If yo have your code in python, you may as well continue in python with webiopi. It's a python web server and I use it to control my small robot car.

[RogerW]

I suggest you stick with Python, at least until you find a good reason not to. It is well supported with import libraries and GUI programming is easy and quick using tkinter. My preference would be for the newer python 3 although there are still some imports stuck on the older version 2.7

The standard ide (idle) is primative but there are good alternatives. I have used geany which does all I need but your milage might vary. It is an interpretive language but for many (if not most) projects performance does not seem to be an issue.

Roger Woollett

[jimsmith93]

OK, Python 3 it is then.

[keybeeper]

For a Python3 GUI I used PyQt4.

When learning I found this tutorial useful http://zetcode.com/gui/pyqt4/

There is a similar tutorial http://zetcode.com/gui/pyqt5/ for PyQt5 which I will use next time.