Tkinter and wxPython

[Geoff Talvola]

Another advantage of Tkinter is that there's a very good book available for 
it, Python and Tkinter Programming by John Grayson.  That's why we 
initially chose Tkinter for our GUI work -- with that book, it was much 
better documented than wxPython.

But we recently switched from Tkinter to wxPython for our latest GUI 
project.  Here's why:

- There's a commercial GUI designer called wxDesigner that makes it easy to 
lay out controls.  It has a few quirks and bugs but overall it saved us 
TONS of work and I highly recommend it to anyone who's writing GUIs in 
wxPython.  Well worth the money, which wasn't much -- $300 for a 
10-developer license, and I think it's about $90 for a single developer.

- We're a Windows shop, and with Tkinter many of the controls didn't have 
the standard Windows look and behavior.  And other controls simply weren't 
available.  With wxPython most standard controls are available, and they 
work just like the Windows standard controls because they ARE the standard 
controls.  And if we ever need a control that's not in wxPython, it 
supports ActiveX controls so we can use any of thousands of 3rd-party controls.

- wxPython is faster.


At 03:08 PM 4/19/01 -0700, Timothy Grant wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>I have seen the GUI wars here, and have for the most part
>ignored them. I am now in a situation where I need input.
>
>We have a project that involves a simple GUI--at the moment--
>that will be getting significantly more complex as the summer
>goes on.
>
>Before we get to far in the project I'm trying to consider my
>options.
>
>Here's our analysis so far:
>
>Tkinter
>-------
>Defacto standard
>Faster to code
>Easier to layout complex screens
>Proven (we know it works)
>
>on the down side, it feels slow.
>
>wxPython
>--------
>Looks significantly better
>More robust widget set
>feels faster
>The author works two blocks away (Hi Robin!)
>
>on the down side, it is unproven and is not the defacto
>standard.
>
>So, I'm looking for people that have changed projects from one
>toolkit to the other and the reasons why they changed.
>
>Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks.


--

- Geoff Talvola
   gtalvola at NameConnector.com