Python and GUI

[sdoty044]

Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
use?

[brad]

sd******@gmail. com wrote:

Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

We have used wxPython with great results. It's cross platform. Can use
native OS widgets and is easy to program. Compiles easily to exe
binaries for Windows users as well.

Best of luck,
Brad

[Thomas Lenarz]

On 21 May 2007 08:39:44 -0700, sd******@gmail. com wrote:

>All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

You should be able to do all those things with TKInter (though I am
not sure about the automatted scrolling text.).

>Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

Like Brad, I would recommend trying wxPyhton
(http://www.wxpython.org/). There is an installer for Windows. Best is
to look at the wxPython-Demo first thing. It contains a lot of
example-code to borrow from. You can both read and try the code within
the Demo-Application.

However, the documentation of the class-library is for C++ only. You
have to apply it to the python-version yourself.

I prefer wxPython to TKInter because it offers more complex widgets
namely Grids and Tabular-Lists right out of the box.

Best wishes,
Thomas

[Petr Muller]

sd******@gmail. com wrote:

Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
use?

There's PyQt thingy, imho very good and easy to learn/use, but still
powerful. I've used it for a small gui-oriented project with almost no
problems and it worked like a charm. However, sometimes I had troubles
finding useful documentation for it.
I've also tried to play with PyGTK, it's quite nice and easy (and you
have the advantage of Glade), but I don't like GTK way of creating GUI.
I haven't used Tkinter a lot, only looked at it. And I didn't like it much.

I would really suggest PyQt. (with a big IMHO :)

Petr

[Cameron Laird]

In article <11************ **********@b40g 2000prd.googleg roups.com>,
<sd******@gmail .comwrote:

>
Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
use?

While PyQt is plenty wonderful, Tkinter's more than adequate,
given the requirements you've described.

[Paul McNett]

sd******@gmail. com wrote:

Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

Python has, I believe, 4 compelling choices for GUI library: Tkinter,
wxPython, PyQt, and PyGTK. Like everything in life, each has their
relative merits and downsides. Briefly, here are my feelings on each,
but I'm mostly versed in wxPython.
Tkinter:

Pros: comes with Python out of the box; terse; easy

Cons: owner-drawn (not-native OS widgets); limited in out-of box
functionality; kind of ugly
wxPython:

Pros: easy to install binary on all platforms, active development,
active friendly community of contributors, native os base widgets on all
platforms.

Cons: hard to build from source on all platforms, everything but the
kitchen sink comes with it, and some things are pretty buggy still or
abandoned.

PyQt:

Pros: looks good on all platforms, easy to install and use.
Cons: licensing issues require you to understand lots of specifics;
owner-drawn widgets.

PyGTK:

Can't comment because I haven't used it. The major con in my mind is
that (I think) you need the Gtk library to be installed on all
platforms, so on OS X / Windows the widgets won't look platform-native.

All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I think each of the GUI libraries would be able to handle this easily.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

Again, this is simply responding to events as they happen. You set up a
callback function with your reactive code, and tell the GUI library to
call that function when the event occurs.

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

I think everyone should use wxPython, but I'm biased.

More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
use?

I've used it and it is easy, yes. Relative ease I can't answer though,
because I find wxPython extremely easy due to depth of use over the years.

Shameless plug: consider using Dabo on top of wxPython - we feel it
makes wxPython even easier and more pythonic, but admittedly there's a
bit of a learning curve there too. Even though Dabo is a full
application framework originally meant for desktop database
applications, it is modular and you can choose to only use the UI
bits... http://dabodev.com

--
pkm ~ http://paulmcnett.com

[Grant Edwards]

On 2007-05-21, Cameron Laird <cl****@lairds. uswrote:

While PyQt is plenty wonderful, Tkinter's more than adequate,
given the requirements you've described.

Tkinter is easier to use for simple things. You just have to
try not to think about the fact that it's pulling a complete
Tcl interpreter into your app. It also seems to come only in
various flavors of ugly. ;)

wxPython (based on wxWidgets) is cross-platform,
industrial-strength and has native look-and-feel. It is,
however, more complex to use. In some places it's not very
"Pythonic" and shows it's C/C++ heritage (this has improved a
bit in the past couple years). There are also a couple more
Pythonic wrappers on top of wxWidgets.

pyGTK isn't a bad choice if Linux/Unix is what you care about.
GTK for Windows was still a bit sketchy the last time I looked
into it.

PyQt I haven't tried, but both Linux/Unix and Windows support
is reported to be solid.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! My polyvinyl cowboy
at wallet was made in Hong
visi.com Kong by Montgomery Clift!

[Kevin Walzer]

sd******@gmail. com wrote:

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

It depends. Are you selling your application commercially/closed-source
or is it freeware/open-source? Are you deploying on several platforms,
or just one?

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Tkinter is simple to code and easy to deploy. It's a bit bare-bones
without additional packages.
2. wxPython is big, harder to learn than Tkinter, but looks good on Mac,
Windows, and *Nix. It will require users to install a lot of extra stuff
(or you'll have to bundle the extra stuff).
3. PyQt is also nice, and works well on Mac/Windows/*Nix but the free
version requires your app to be released under the GPL. That may or may
not be an issue for you. PyQt is also a large package to install.
4. PyGTK is popular on*Nix and works OK on Windows. But it doesn't run
natively on the Mac.
--
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com

[brad]

Kevin Walzer wrote:

2. wxPython is big, harder to learn than Tkinter, but looks good on Mac,
Windows, and *Nix. It will require users to install a lot of extra stuff
(or you'll have to bundle the extra stuff).

PyInstaller builds binaries beautifully from raw py source. No need to
bundle the wx stuff. I develop on Linux, build on Windows (with
PyInstaller) and it works great. The source runs on any platform, the
Windows binaries is neat for the point and click users.

Brad

[David Tremouilles]

Hello,

My 2 cents contribution:
To me all toolkits offer nice features. It's just a matter of choice
depending on your needs.
I've personally chosen pyGTK and I use it successfully on
Linux/windows/MacOsX for my home grown softs.
The reasons of my choice:
- It looks the same on all platform (actualy I want to use the softs
on different platform and I definitly prefer that it look the same on
all of them!)
- It's easy to develop with (Glade3,...)
- It works perfectly on all platform and it's no difficult to install
(even compile!) on all of them.
- It looks nice (GTK is the Gimp ToolKit)

Let me say that I also tried TkInter (ugly :-( ), pyQt (a mess to
understand what kind of license you are allowed to use for you soft),
wxpython (it's GTK on Linux but not on other platform and thus not
looking the same on all platform...)

Just a personal view...

David

21 May 2007 08:39:44 -0700, sd******@gmail. com <sd******@gmail .com>:

>
Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
Python?

All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
buttons, text box, ect...). Then I will have some text output, maybe
a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
the scrolling text (output)

Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
is included.

More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
use?

--
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