Looking for a basic GUI tutorial

[Eric Brunel]

Russ Schmidt wrote:
> Help!
> 
> I have been following the various GUI threads with some interest, and am 
> hoping that you can point me to an appropriate reference source (book, web 
> site, whatever). I have been trying to pick up Python in my spare time, and 
> while I can program simple stuff, I have concluded that I just have no clue 
> as to what truly interactive (GUI) programming is all about.
> 
> As background, I am a Fortran programmer. I learned in the 70s on punched 
> cards, and used it extensively in the 80s. I have since dabbled a bit with 
> Perl, VBA, and Python, doing useful stuff but basically writing Fortran 
> programs: you set up the input, hit "Go", and wait for the answer. Python 
> is great for this, but I would like to expand and put a useful interactive 
> front end on the things I create.
> 
> I have tried John Grayson's "Python and Tkinter Programming", but that book 
> had me nearly screaming in frustration at it's lack of explanation. It 
> tells me that a mainloop is necessary to start the Tkinter event loop, but 
> there is no discussion about what an event loop is, or how it works, or why 
> I should care other than "you have to do it this way or it won't work". I 
> am really bad at cargo-cult programming (just stick these pieces in and it 
> will work) - I need to understand what is going on and why something is 
> required, then I can expand on things pretty well.
> 
> Most of the references I have come across are more about Object-Oriented 
> Programming, which is often linked to interactive programming but is not 
> the same thing. I think I understand what classes and objects are, and can 
> see some of the value in encapsulating and re-using code and data 
> structures. What I really don't understand is how to set up a truly 
> interactive program, and why it needs to be that way. Any references you 
> can send my way will be appreciated.

If I'm not mistaken, "Thinking in Tkinter" has almost been made for you ;-) :
http://home.att.net/~stephen_ferg/thinking_in_tkinter
(follow the "all_programs.html" link to see what it's talking about)

> Thanks for your help.
> 
> Russ

No problem! HTH
-- 
- Eric Brunel <eric.brunel at pragmadev.com> -
PragmaDev : Real Time Software Development Tools - http://www.pragmadev.com