Reports, PDF, and grid widget for Python?

[Adams-Blake Co.]

Cameron Laird wrote:

> In article <87iszverj0.fsf at flibuste.net>,
> William  <wilk-spamout at flibuste.net> wrote:
>>"Adams-Blake Co." <aremovethiscanton at adamsremovethis-blake.com> writes:
>>
>>> I want to write a "business" application in Python and I need to create
>>> many complex text reports (subtotals, totals, grand totals, etc.). I'd
>>> also like to display data in a grid object (like Java's Jtable.) Finally,
>>> I want this to run on the Mac, Linux, and Windows.... with an install as
>>> easy as possible and able to be performed by a non-techie. Thus, I don't
>>> want to get "involved" with a 3rd party widget library (wxW.., Qt, etc.)
>>> that might make the install a nightmare for the user.
>>
>>if you don't want to use 3rd party widget library, you can do a web
>>application, with the http module of python.
>>
>>> 
>>> Is there a native Python library to do grids? How do you folks "layout"
>>> complex reports and send them to PDF?
>>
>>pdf can be done with http://reportlab.com
>>
>>--
>>William Dodé - http://flibuste.net
> 
> Python installs with Tkinter.  Tkinter provides grid.

Huh? It does? I must have really missed this in the books I have. I'll have 
to check this out. All my application needs are text boxes, radio buttons, 
check boxes, some entry buttons AND a solid grid that I can put data (and 
other objects) in. 

OK, can you please answer these questions: 

1. Is Tkinter bundled with Python or is it a seperate install on Windows and 
Mac (I'm on Linux and it came installed with Mandrake 8.2.)

2.What are the advantages of using the wxPython library? Is it more 
cross-platform than Tkinter? More widgets? Easier to use? What?





> Several people through the years have written table
> widgets with PMW, and it's now easy to install Tk's
> TkTable.  I summarize:  if you choose Tkinter, there
> are quite a few ways you can approach report construc-
> tion.
> 

What is PMW? Where is TkTable to be found?




> I'm certainly a ReportLab fan.
> 

Pretty low level stuff, but probably doable if I have enough time.

> I get the feeling you're working too hard at this,
> though.  How does a Web application not meet all
> your needs?

You are 100% correct and I AM looking at a web-application. I've spent days 
and days looking at doing this in ASP, JSP, PHP, PSP, Java Servlets, Perl 
CGI... you name it, I've looked at it. 

I've only done VB COM objects with IIS and never a scripted CGI application. 
How does one call a Python CGI program from PHP? Is it an object like it is 
under VB/IIS? 

As far as the web is concerned, I like the idea of JSP because it allows me 
the use of the third-party Java report modules. But there aren't that many 
JSP hosts and we're too small a company to have our own server just yet. 

Thanks,

Al