pyopengl: Could it replace c++?

It depends a LOT on the contents of your computer graphics course. If you are doing anything like the introductory course I've taught in the past, it's basically spinning cubes and spheres, some texture mapping and some vertex animation, and that's about it. In this case, Python would be perfectly adequate, assuming you can get around the Unpythonic (and, lets be honest, un-C++) OpenGL state-machine paradigm.

For things like doing your matrix maths you can use Numpy, the core of which is written in C and is really quite quick. You'll be up and running faster, iterate faster and most likely have more fun.

If, however, you are doing some hardcore, cutting edge, millions-of-triangles-per-scene-skinned-animated-everything computer graphics course, stick with C++.

If your class has given you the choice it's probably a safe bet that Python will be ok.

If you want to leverage your knowledge into a real job in computer graphics though, pretty much every game and graphics engine is written in C or C++, while Python (or Lua) is left as a scripting language.

Here's my personal experience:

When I first heard about PyOpenGL, I was absolutely thrilled. OpenGL in my favourite language? Deal! So I started learning 3D graphics programming by myself.

I went through several tutorials and books like NeHe and the OpenGL SuperBible. Because PyOpenGL's functions are identical to that of OpenGL itself's (with very minor differences), it wasn't hard to replicate most of the examples. Besides, NeHe has many source code in Python that others made.

It wasn't too long after (about 2 weeks) I read up on Quaternions and implemented in Python myself. Now I have a GLSL-enabled environment with full 3D camera interaction options. I made a simple Phong shader, and used Quaternions to drive my camera rotations. I haven't got a single performance hit, yet.

Months later, I came back to this code.

I attempted a Python Octree implementation, and when I went to 8 levels (256x256x256 voxels), it took more than 2G of RAM to compute and minutes after, it still isn't done. I realised when you store many objects in Python, it's not just a simple struct like in C++. That's where I realised I need to factor this out, write this in C++, and then glue it back with a Python call.

Once I'm done with this, if I remember, I will update you. ;]

(To answer your question, no, Python will never replace C++. Those two lanaguages have different purposes, and different strengths.)