There are many people who use fish tanks or glass critter keepers and are successful with them. Generally, they require more work than other types of caging. Glass loses heat quicker than other types of caging like plastic or PVC. Critter keepers generally also have screen tops which means humidity is tough to keep at an appropriate temperature. You can always cover most of the screen with seran wrap and tin foil or a plexiglass sheet to keep in humidity.
Screen cages are not appropriate for ball pythons because they will not allow for a proper heat gradient or humidity to be present in the environment.
Wood, from what i've read is not a popular material for building. Wood is porous and difficult to clean. Sealing the wood could keep it working for a little while but the humidity requirements of balls generally keep people from using wood in an enclosure. That and heating wood is difficult since you cant really put an UTH on the bottom, however you could always put the UTH in and then put something like linoleum tile over it but you'd have to seal it.
A lot of keepers use rubbermaid tubs to keep their snakes in or other types of sweater box caging. This is good because it is easy to stabilize a temperature gradient and keep humidity at proper levels.
With any type of caging, you need a good thermostatHope that helped you decide what kind of caging would work for your snake.