[Python-Dev] Re: ajuba solutions (formerly scriptics) acquired by interwoven

[Greg Wilson]

> Fredrik Lundh <effbot@telia.com>:
> > looks like Tcl's parent company has ceased to be:

> Eric Raymond:
> This raises anew a question I've been meaning to bring up for the last week:
> is it finally time to move away from Python's dependence on Tcl/Tk for GUI
> support?

Yes please.

> It seems to me that the Tcl world has been in increasing disarray for the
> last two years.  Its growth doesn't seem to have matched Perl's or Python's;
> no strong community site analogous to python.org or CPAN has emerged;

I have been told by two different publishers that they can't even give Tcl books
away any longer.  It's also interesting that the new Ruby book from Hunt and
Thomas clearly positions Ruby as an alternative to Python, rather than Tcl or
Perl (I saw three mentions in the first ten minutes of the fact that Ruby is
more widely used in Japan than Python).  Also interesting that the Ruby GUI
toolkit they describe is Tk-based...

> I understand that we can't simply drop Tkinter.  But I think it might be
> worth another look at alternatives (notably wxPython) to consider bringing
> one into the core distribution during 2.x, so that later on we can plan to
> move Tk to "unsupported -- legacy".

I thought about using wxPython in the most recent run of my Python course, but
decided to stick to Tkinter because:

- There isn't a wxWindows/wxPython book (matters a lot when organizations are
  trying to decide what to adopt for long-term use).

- Tkinter came packaged with the 1.5.2 installer, wxPython didn't.

- There aren't as many tools on top of wxPython as there are on top of Tkinter.
  In particular, I think that a vector drawing package on top of wxPython that
  did what Sketch does, but on Windows as well as Linux, would make a great
  subject for a book on Python, non-trivial OO, and HCI (hint, hint...)

Thanks,
Greg