How easy is it to create graphical user interface with Python?

[IB]

tnkjtg at acc.umu.se (Johan Trygg) wrote in message news:<54d0b644.0201210149.5dd5bd5 at posting.google.com>...
> Hi,
> I am a complete beginner to Python, but I have heard many good things
> about it. I am thinking about creating a GUI software that will
> contain some linear algebra, 2D plots (scatter, histogram, line plots)
> and a nice GUI with menus.
> I am currently using Matlab to do this but does anyone have experience
> with Python to create such a software.
> 
> Hope to hear from you soon,


Hello, Johan:

I spend few weeks researching different GUIs for Python. So far I
looked into PyQT, wxWindows and Tkinter. My final choice is Tkinter.
With the book 'Python and Tkinter programming' by J.Grayson it is
quite straightforward and relatively easy
(http://www.manning.com/Grayson/index.html). Although I have to admit
that sometimes I have bad time figuring out poorely documented
features.

One of disadvantages of Tkinter is that it is indeed slower than other
Python GUIs. I have a spread-sheet-type window with 500 controls and
it takes couple of seconds to initialize and open it. wxWindows or
PyQT would handle this much faster, as far as I can tell looking at
samples.

The main reason I choosed TKinter is portability to Linux and Mac. I
am not sure if QT is available for Mac yet. The promise that 'it will
be soon' was posted for a long time on their website. So some time ago
I decided not to wait on them. Also you can't use QT for commercial
project without relatively expensive license. (For three palatfroms,
including Windows that will be too expensive in my case.)

wxWindows I liked a lot but after some research I found that port to
Mac is also something that I can't expect to happen soon and quite a
lot of its features exist only on Windows. So it does not work for me
neither.

Back to Tkinter. So far I was able to build things that look and feel
just like I would like them in MFC. If you will get the book I
mentioned, you will be up to the speed in a week or two at most.

--Igor