FWIW, my original post here was under my then-specified nickname, Blue Shoes. I have since changed it to my real name, Alan Anderson.
NOTE TO SELF AND WHOMEVER IT MAY CONCERN WHO PASSES THIS WAY LATER: ITEM: I now realize that I omitted an important piece of information in my original post: I am using the SDK for Python. That turns out to be a significant omission when it comes to discussing the use of the Eclipse IDE, and I think the "Downloads" page is misleading on that subject. It makes a clear distinction about which GAE SDK to download for Java or Python, but it does not do so for the Google Plug-in for Eclipse; it just has the link "Download the Google Plug-in for Eclipse," which led me to think that plug-in worked for Java and Python. As it turns out, that plug-in works only for Java. It took me forever to realize that. I kept expecting to see a GAE perspective or some such that would accommodate Python. Jaroslav here kept telling me "There is no GWT/GAE perspective." And of course he is correct. There is a Java perspective that one would use for Java. So correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that GAE does not offer an Eclipse plug-in for Python. The docs say "You can use PyDev," but it does not say that if you want an Eclipse plug-in for GAE Python development, PyDev is the ONLY plug-in available for that. I downloaded and installed the PyDev plug-in, and it gives you a PyDev perspective that has a Python editor, debugger, etc. I already had the GAE plug-in installed, so I figured that it might be necessary to deploy an app or whatever. But it turns out that so far as I can see, it has no use whatsoever for GAE Python development. PyDev has its own facilities for creating GAE Python projects, running and/or debugging apps in the test mode, etc., and deploying GAE apps. So I uninstalled the GAE plug-in, and it appears to be totally irrelevant and unnecessary to Python development. It is at a minimum annoying that the docs do not make that clear. That download link should be titled "Download the Eclipse GAE Plug-in for Java" or some such so a newbie won't waste time trying to figure out why it doesn't work for Python. There, I am nearly finished with my complaining and whining, and I feel much better now. ITEM: Searching with Google, I found a number of web pages on using the PyDev Eclipse Plug-in to create GAE projects. Most of them show a very complicated procedure one must go through to configure a PyDev project so that it works for GAE. I couldn't see how a newbie would ever figure it out, and I don't think you should have to search so hard to find those explanations. One of those pages is on the GAE site at http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/eclipse.html. However, I eventually learned that all of those pages including the one on the GAE site are obsolete. The latest version of PyDev (as of this writing) is 1.5.9, and it has the ability to create GAE-aware projects without all that complicated manual configuration. It employs wizards that ask for the location of the GAE libraries and such. It is much simpler than the manual procedures I referenced above. The only documentation I found that explains how to use this newer PyDev for GAE projects is an 11-minute video that I stumbled upon. It is by the developer of PyDev. Here's a link to it. (Here comes my last bit of whining.) It wasn't exactly easy to stumble upon. * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoD5R_GX-08 The video was made for PyDev version 1.4.6, but it is sufficient for the version, 1.5.9, that I have installed. These revelations make me wonder about the maturity of GAE. Much of what I've read makes me think that Google has somewhat of a bias toward Python. They say that much of their search technology is written in Python, and GAE originally supported only Python; Java was introduced later. So I would think that the GAE Python support and documentation would be more complete than that for Java. Also, I am surprised that Google didn't develop their own Eclipse Plug-in for GAE Python projects like they did for GAE Java projects. I suppose all this reflects the larger number of Java coders as compared to the number of Python coders. ITEM: Since my last post here, I have obtained the book "Programming Google App Engine" by Dan Sanderson (O'Reilly | Google Press). I have so far read only the first few chapters but already feel that I am coming out of the wilderness. I am finding it to be an excellent book. I would recommend it to anybody starting from scratch at learning GAE as I have been doing. Thanks to those of you who responded to my original post. Please inform me If any of my conclusions here are incorrect. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to google-appeng...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-appengine+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en.
