Welch essential for learning Tkinter well?

[Dick Moores]

In a couple of places recently I've seen Brent Welch's _Practical
Programming in Tcl & Tk_ (<http://tinyurl.com/ynlk8b>) recommended
for learning Tkinter well.

So a couple of questions:

1) Is it really good for learning Tkinter, even though it doesn't
mention Tkinter at all (in the 4th edition at least)?

2) If it is good for learning Tkinter, can I get by with a cheaper,
used copy of the 3rd edition?

Thanks,

Dick Moores

[James Stroud]

Dick Moores wrote:

In a couple of places recently I've seen Brent Welch's _Practical
Programming in Tcl & Tk_ (<http://tinyurl.com/ynlk8b>) recommended for
learning Tkinter well.

So a couple of questions:

1) Is it really good for learning Tkinter, even though it doesn't
mention Tkinter at all (in the 4th edition at least)?

2) If it is good for learning Tkinter, can I get by with a cheaper, used
copy of the 3rd edition?

Thanks,

Dick Moores

Probably better is to get Grayson (google "Grayson Tkinter"). It covers
Tkinter <--Tcl/Tk mapping to sufficient extent for Tkinter
proficiency. I have found the online Tcl/Tk documentation to fill in the
gaps.

Tkinter seems to me to have been created largely automatically and so
has much of the documentation that maps it to Tcl/Tk. This begs the
question, is anyone truly an expert in Tkinter?

James

[Kevin Walzer]

James Stroud wrote:

>This begs the
question, is anyone truly an expert in Tkinter?

Frederick Lundh is, if anyone is.

http://www.pythonware.com/library/tk...tion/index.htm (outdated)
http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/ (new but incomplete)

Coming to Python from a Tcl/Tk background, I find Tkinter to be pretty
compatible with what I know about Tk: usually it's just a matter of
figuring out how to translate the code. Having a Tk background from Tcl
is also helpful in using some of the more advanced Tcl/Tk stuff that has
been wrapped in Python, but isn't much documented or widely used, such
as BWidgets.

From that standpoint, the Welch book is a useful resource, though
probably not essential.

--
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com

[Paul Rubin]

Dick Moores <rd*@rcblue.comwrites:

In a couple of places recently I've seen Brent Welch's _Practical
Programming in Tcl & Tk_ (<http://tinyurl.com/ynlk8b>) recommended for
learning Tkinter well.

I'm skeptical of the value of learning Tkinter really well. No matter
how thoroughly you learn it, your GUI's are going to look crude and
have a limited widget set. For lots of applications, a basic GUI
which implements the needed functions straightforwardly is fine and
Tkinter is good for that kind of thing. I've used it that way based
on the online tutorials and it's been good enough for my purposes.
But if I needed something fancier I'd probably go to a more advanced
toolkit rather than trying to push the limits of tkinter.

I mainly use

http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/tkinter/

as tkinter docs and it's pretty good.

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <46**************@codebykevin.com>,
Kevin Walzer <[e-mail]:

James Stroud wrote:

This begs the
question, is anyone truly an expert in Tkinter?

Frederick Lundh is, if anyone is.

http://www.pythonware.com/library/tk...tion/index.htm (outdated)
http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/ (new but incomplete)

I agree that this is an excellent resource.

I find Welch's book and the on-line tcl/tk help very helpful for Tkinter
programming--especially some of the more obscure details. But to use
either of these resources comfortably you must learn the basics of
Tkinter first (including understanding the simple mapping between
Tkinter and Tcl/Tk).

For learning the basics of Tkinter I suggest the links that Kevin listed
above and/or Alex Martelli's "Python in a Nutshell" (an excellent
reference in any case). Grayson's book is another reasonable alternative
(and includes enough reference material to keep you from having to refer
to the tcl/tk documentation very often).

-- Russell

[Dick Moores]

At 10:36 AM 4/6/2007, Russell E. Owen wrote:

>In article <46**************@codebykevin.com>,
Kevin Walzer <[e-mail]:

James Stroud wrote:

>This begs the
question, is anyone truly an expert in Tkinter?

Frederick Lundh is, if anyone is.

http://www.pythonware.com/library/tk...tion/index.htm (outdated)
http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/ (new but incomplete)

I agree that this is an excellent resource.

I find Welch's book and the on-line tcl/tk help very helpful for Tkinter
programming--especially some of the more obscure details. But to use
either of these resources comfortably you must learn the basics of
Tkinter first (including understanding the simple mapping between
Tkinter and Tcl/Tk).

Where can I get this mapping spelled out?

>For learning the basics of Tkinter I suggest the links that Kevin listed
above and/or Alex Martelli's "Python in a Nutshell" (an excellent
reference in any case).

Although owning the 2nd ed. of "Python is a Nutshell", I hadn't
thought of looking into it for Tkinker. There's a whole chapter,
"Tkinter GUIs" (46 pages!).

Grayson's book is another reasonable alternative
(and includes enough reference material to keep you from having to refer
to the tcl/tk documentation very often).

One web tutorial that looks good to me is "Thinking in Tkinter", by
Stephen Ferg (<http://www.ferg.org/thinking_in_tkinter/index.html>).

My thanks to all who responded.

Dick Moores

[James Stroud]

Dick Moores wrote:

At 10:36 AM 4/6/2007, Russell E. Owen wrote:

>I find Welch's book and the on-line tcl/tk help very helpful for Tkinter
programming--especially some of the more obscure details. But to use
either of these resources comfortably you must learn the basics of
Tkinter first (including understanding the simple mapping between
Tkinter and Tcl/Tk).

Where can I get this mapping spelled out?

Grayson Appendix A. $25 pdf--well worth it in your time.

James

[Dick Moores]

At 03:43 AM 4/7/2007, James Stroud wrote:

>Dick Moores wrote:

At 10:36 AM 4/6/2007, Russell E. Owen wrote:

I find Welch's book and the on-line tcl/tk help very helpful for Tkinter
programming--especially some of the more obscure details. But to use
either of these resources comfortably you must learn the basics of
Tkinter first (including understanding the simple mapping between
Tkinter and Tcl/Tk).

Where can I get this mapping spelled out?

Grayson Appendix A. $25 pdf--well worth it in your time.

Terrific! Thank you.

Dick