Tinker vs wxPython ?- Opinions/Views

[Cliff Wells]

On Friday 07 December 2001 23:48, Roman Milner wrote:
> Tkinter Pros:
>
> Very easy to learn
> Excellent documentation (a whole book, plus some excellent web sites)
> Very stable
> Portable
>
> Tkinter Cons:
>
> Small lame selection of widgets (no notebook, no tree, no paned
> windows. You can get some of these with PMW but it is slow and hasn't
> been updated in a long time)
> Slow.
> It doesn't seem like Tk has been improved in the last several years -
> it seems like new widgets will never get added.
>
> wxPython Pros:
>
> Fast
> Great widget selection
> Portable
>
> wxPython Cons:
> Lame documentation (You basically get the wxWindows C++ API reference
> and a bunch of python examples.)
> Difficult to learn (IMO the wxPython API is much harder on the brain
> than Tkinter)
> Less stable than Tkinter (it has been my experience that I have more
> crashes with wxPython than TKinter)

I agree with most of these points.  I started with Tkinter/PMW, and they 
are very easy to learn, but as with many toolkits that have a short 
learning curve, you soon find yourself writing horribly complex code to 
get around their limitations.  Starting with Tkinter is fine, just expect 
to switch to another toolkit when you start hitting your head against its 
limitations.

I switched to wxPython some time ago, and while it's not perfect, it is 
an excellent toolkit and really not too difficult to learn.  I haven't 
experienced any stability issues with it - that is not to say there aren't 
bugs (I've encountered my fair share) - just that an application that is 
working won't suddenly crash for some unknown reason.

As far as the documentation, while it is true that there isn't much 
Python-specific information, if you can mentally translate a C++ prototype 
into Python, you're on your way.  Additionally, wxPython comes with an 
excellent demo that allows you to see most of the features of the toolkit 
and how to use them.


-- 
Cliff Wells
Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726 x308
(800) 735-0555 x308