evaluating gui modules, any experience on tkinter?

[krishnakant Mane]

hello all,
I seam to have noticed this a bit late but it appears to me that
tkinter is being used very widely for gui development on all platform?
is that right?
since fredric lundh has written a very good introduction to tkinter
(was that just an intro?), I have got keen interest to know the
following. may be fredric himself might put some light on these
points.
1. I seriously don't intend to start a flame war but does tkinter
stand up to the standards of heavy gui development? can I have an
entire mdi application working fine with tkinter? I know wxpython can
do it and I have heard enough about pyqt, but tkinter seams to be very
rich in gui objects.
2. as usual I always look out for accessibility when it comes to gui
design. will tkinter be useful for blind people? I mean, are gui
apps in tkinter accessible on windows?
3. I don't know if I need any thing else as dependencies on my
windows machine. I am using python24 and I did not find any thing
about installation in the introduction to tkinter. can some one give
me the process of installing tkinter and all necessary things?
4. is tkinter absolutely compatible with windows gui? does it call on
native api for native look and feel? in that case I think
accessibility issue is automatically solved.
I am looking out gui library for some serious application development.
one is an erp system and the other is a customer relation management
system.
so I am confused between wxpython pyqt and now tkinter.
out of the 3 I only found qt talking extencively about accessibility,
but did not find a way to install qt in the first place. I could not
compile qt nor did I find any run-time dlls for mingw so that I can
use it out of the box.
wxpython is the poorest in documentation and tkinter seams to be best at that.
please give me some advice.
thanking all.
Krishnakant.

[Norm]

krishnakant Mane wrote:

hello all,
I seam to have noticed this a bit late but it appears to me that
tkinter is being used very widely for gui development on all platform?
is that right?
since fredric lundh has written a very good introduction to tkinter
(was that just an intro?), I have got keen interest to know the
following. may be fredric himself might put some light on these
points.
1. I seriously don't intend to start a flame war but does tkinter
stand up to the standards of heavy gui development? can I have an
entire mdi application working fine with tkinter? I know wxpython can
do it and I have heard enough about pyqt, but tkinter seams to be very
rich in gui objects.
2. as usual I always look out for accessibility when it comes to gui
design. will tkinter be useful for blind people? I mean, are gui
apps in tkinter accessible on windows?
3. I don't know if I need any thing else as dependencies on my
windows machine. I am using python24 and I did not find any thing
about installation in the introduction to tkinter. can some one give
me the process of installing tkinter and all necessary things?
4. is tkinter absolutely compatible with windows gui? does it call on
native api for native look and feel? in that case I think
accessibility issue is automatically solved.
I am looking out gui library for some serious application development.
one is an erp system and the other is a customer relation management
system.
so I am confused between wxpython pyqt and now tkinter.
out of the 3 I only found qt talking extencively about accessibility,
but did not find a way to install qt in the first place. I could not
compile qt nor did I find any run-time dlls for mingw so that I can
use it out of the box.
wxpython is the poorest in documentation and tkinter seams to be best at that.
please give me some advice.
thanking all.
Krishnakant.

[Norm]

For wxPython, there is a book "wxPython in Action" published by
Manning

Cheers

Norm wrote:

krishnakant Mane wrote:

hello all,
I seam to have noticed this a bit late but it appears to me that
tkinter is being used very widely for gui development on all platform?
is that right?
since fredric lundh has written a very good introduction to tkinter
(was that just an intro?), I have got keen interest to know the
following. may be fredric himself might put some light on these
points.
1. I seriously don't intend to start a flame war but does tkinter
stand up to the standards of heavy gui development? can I have an
entire mdi application working fine with tkinter? I know wxpython can
do it and I have heard enough about pyqt, but tkinter seams to be very
rich in gui objects.
2. as usual I always look out for accessibility when it comes to gui
design. will tkinter be useful for blind people? I mean, are gui
apps in tkinter accessible on windows?
3. I don't know if I need any thing else as dependencies on my
windows machine. I am using python24 and I did not find any thing
about installation in the introduction to tkinter. can some one give
me the process of installing tkinter and all necessary things?
4. is tkinter absolutely compatible with windows gui? does it call on
native api for native look and feel? in that case I think
accessibility issue is automatically solved.
I am looking out gui library for some serious application development.
one is an erp system and the other is a customer relation management
system.
so I am confused between wxpython pyqt and now tkinter.
out of the 3 I only found qt talking extencively about accessibility,
but did not find a way to install qt in the first place. I could not
compile qt nor did I find any run-time dlls for mingw so that I can
use it out of the box.
wxpython is the poorest in documentation and tkinter seams to be best at that.
please give me some advice.
thanking all.
Krishnakant.

[David Boddie]

krishnakant Mane wrote:

I seam to have noticed this a bit late but it appears to me that
tkinter is being used very widely for gui development on all platform?
is that right?

Tkinter is bundled with Python on all platforms that support Tcl/Tk.
As a result there's a low "barrier to entry" to Tkinter programming, so
people tend to use it, at least when they start with GUI development.

3. I don't know if I need any thing else as dependencies on my
windows machine. I am using python24 and I did not find any thing
about installation in the introduction to tkinter. can some one give
me the process of installing tkinter and all necessary things?

It's been a long time since I installed Python on Windows, and I think
I used ActivePython:

http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/

I believe that this package includes Tkinter, so you shouldn't have
to do anything else to install it.

so I am confused between wxpython pyqt and now tkinter.
out of the 3 I only found qt talking extencively about accessibility,
but did not find a way to install qt in the first place. I could not
compile qt nor did I find any run-time dlls for mingw so that I can
use it out of the box.

I believe there should be a package which includes pre-built Qt
libraries as well as source code, all licensed under the GNU GPL.
It may not help you get started with MinGW, though the information
on the download page indicates that the package "will also download
and install the MinGW compiler, if needed".

Take a look at the following page for more information:

http://www.trolltech.com/developer/downloads/qt/windows

If you're unable to license your own code under the GNU GPL then
you'll have to look at commercial licenses for Qt and PyQt.

David

[hg]

krishnakant Mane wrote:

hello all,
I seam to have noticed this a bit late but it appears to me that
tkinter is being used very widely for gui development on all platform?
is that right?
since fredric lundh has written a very good introduction to tkinter
(was that just an intro?), I have got keen interest to know the
following. may be fredric himself might put some light on these
points.
1. I seriously don't intend to start a flame war but does tkinter
stand up to the standards of heavy gui development? can I have an
entire mdi application working fine with tkinter? I know wxpython can
do it and I have heard enough about pyqt, but tkinter seams to be very
rich in gui objects.
2. as usual I always look out for accessibility when it comes to gui
design. will tkinter be useful for blind people? I mean, are gui
apps in tkinter accessible on windows?
3. I don't know if I need any thing else as dependencies on my
windows machine. I am using python24 and I did not find any thing
about installation in the introduction to tkinter. can some one give
me the process of installing tkinter and all necessary things?
4. is tkinter absolutely compatible with windows gui? does it call on
native api for native look and feel? in that case I think
accessibility issue is automatically solved.
I am looking out gui library for some serious application development.
one is an erp system and the other is a customer relation management
system.
so I am confused between wxpython pyqt and now tkinter.
out of the 3 I only found qt talking extencively about accessibility,
but did not find a way to install qt in the first place. I could not
compile qt nor did I find any run-time dlls for mingw so that I can
use it out of the box.
wxpython is the poorest in documentation and tkinter seams to be best at
that. please give me some advice.
thanking all.
Krishnakant.

Tkinter is fine under *nix and Windows for a large range of applications. I
think it has drawbacks and advantage compared to other toolkits. The major
advantage being bundled with python, and the drawbacks include (I
think) ... look and feel, printing support, imaging, documentation.

Then there are two schools: PyQT and wxPython - both very easy to learn and
production libraries ... I never know whether PyQT is commercial or not
under windows (trollteck changed their QT license I think).

I strongly suggest looking at wxPython - and start with their demo package
which runs also under *nix and windows.
hg

[Gian Mario Tagliaretti]

hg wrote:

Tkinter is fine under *nix and Windows for a large range of applications.
I think it has drawbacks and advantage compared to other toolkits. The
major advantage being bundled with python, and the drawbacks include (I
think) ... look and feel, printing support, imaging, documentation.

agreed

Then there are two schools: PyQT and wxPython -

you completely forgot pygtk. or you didn't want to mention it :)

both very easy to learn

I think that pygtk is the easiest

ciao
--
Gian Mario Tagliaretti

[krishnakant Mane]

On 03/12/06, Gian Mario Tagliaretti <g.***********@ gmail.comwrote:

hg wrote:

Tkinter is fine under *nix and Windows for a large range of applications.
I think it has drawbacks and advantage compared to other toolkits. The
major advantage being bundled with python, and the drawbacks include (I
think) ... look and feel, printing support, imaging, documentation.

well, I am looking seriously at wxpython.

I found pyqt very good but can't figure out where to get dynamic
run-times for qt.
I don't want to compile it myself.
if that is available then I could as well go for it.
but talking about wxpython, I found it very easy. and after reading a
few articles at devshed.com I am up and running with wxpython.
but problem is that as I emailed on another thread, I am falling short
of api documentation and reference for wxpython.
there is the reference and all the docs for wx widgets. but what is
the point in first studying the c++ version and then translating the
same back to python when a library is already been translated and
there to be used?
Krishnakant.

[tleeuwenburg]

Tkinter is lame, but it works everywhere and is what I keep coming back
to despite my many complaints about it.

If youre application can be fit into a web porgramming framework, that
may well be the best way to go. Your browser can probably render a
better gui than any of the other frameworks can.

Cheers,
-T