ready to use python, need help with GUI decision

[Jonathon McKitrick]

Hi all,

I am totally hooked on what I have learned about python. I am going to use
it to develop a simple data entry app I need for some financial record
keeping.

I understand tkinter is official and simple to use, but many who use
wxPython swear by it, and it is gaining ground.

I would like to run on any platform, but that's not critical. What I want
to do is support an app that will grow over time, and should look clean. I
don't want to spend lots of time maintaining GUI code rather than app logic.

Can anyone offer any advice?

jm
--
My other computer is your Windows box.

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> Can anyone offer any advice?

If PyQt is a possible option for you - choose it. IMHO its marvellous - and
the signal-slot-mechanism is good for separating gui and logic. The
designer also works very well. If you want to use it under windows, I think
purchasing BlackAdder might be a good choice - I think of that myself,
although under Linux things are a little bit easier because of the gpl'ed
qt.

--
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch

[Josiah Carlson]

> I understand tkinter is official and simple to use, but many who use

wxPython swear by it, and it is gaining ground.
wxPython is easy to use, free, and available on most every platform you
could want to use.

I would like to run on any platform, but that's not critical. What I want
to do is support an app that will grow over time, and should look clean. I
don't want to spend lots of time maintaining GUI code rather than app logic.

If you build your application right, maintenance shouldn't be a huge issue.

While I favor wxPython, it is really the only toolkit I've ever used,
and can only really say that I enjoy using it.

PyGTK looks to be about as easy to use, but I have no experience with
it, so I'll not comment.

I would argue against using PyQT, if only for the license restrictions
on Windows.

I would suggest you not try FXPy (Python's link to the Fox GUI toolkit),
if only because the latest version is quite old.

Initially for writing GUIs in Python, I tried tk, but found the learning
curve to be too steep. It seems to get easier the more you use it.
- Josiah

[Jonathon McKitrick]

On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 08:59:48AM +0200, Miki Tebeka wrote:
: Hello Jonathon,
:
: >Can anyone offer any advice?
: I use wxPython here at work and I'm very pleased with it. Native look
: and feel, a lot of widgets ...
: There are some nice UI designers as well (Boa, wxGlade ...). The UI in
: my projects is not that complicated to I write all the GUI in VIm, the
: *Sizer are wonderful.

I started out with tk/Pwm for my first decent sized project, and I really
like it. I also decided to take a look at wxPython, just for comparison. I
like the richness, but on an older laptop, it seems to take much more CPU,
like Java. Does anyone else find that to be the case?
jm
--
My other computer is your Windows box.

[Peter Hansen]

Jonathon McKitrick wrote:

On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 08:59:48AM +0200, Miki Tebeka wrote:
: Hello Jonathon,
:
: >Can anyone offer any advice?
: I use wxPython here at work and I'm very pleased with it. Native look
: and feel, a lot of widgets ...
: There are some nice UI designers as well (Boa, wxGlade ...). The UI in
: my projects is not that complicated to I write all the GUI in VIm, the
: *Sizer are wonderful.

I started out with tk/Pwm for my first decent sized project, and I really
like it. I also decided to take a look at wxPython, just for comparison. I
like the richness, but on an older laptop, it seems to take much more CPU,
like Java. Does anyone else find that to be the case?

I *think*, given that wxPython is a thin (?) Python wrapper around
a C++ DLL that makes native calls to the OS, while Tkinter is a
Python wrapper around a TCL wrapper (complete with TCL interpreter)
around something that makes native OS calls to the OS, that wxPython
has an inherent and relatively significant advantage, performance-
wise. At least, that's my theory. I don't recall having tried
to compare them in this respect, nor do I recall past discussions
about it (though I bet Google groups does <wink>).

-Peter

[Jonathon McKitrick]

On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 08:59:48AM +0200, Miki Tebeka wrote:
: Hello Jonathon,
:
: >Can anyone offer any advice?
: I use wxPython here at work and I'm very pleased with it. Native look
: and feel, a lot of widgets ...
: There are some nice UI designers as well (Boa, wxGlade ...). The UI in
: my projects is not that complicated to I write all the GUI in VIm, the
: *Sizer are wonderful.

I started out with tk/Pwm for my first decent sized project, and I really
like it. I also decided to take a look at wxPython, just for comparison. I
like the richness, but on an older laptop, it seems to take much more CPU,
like Java. Does anyone else find that to be the case?
jm
--
My other computer is your Windows box.