Wheel-reinvention with Python

[Mark Roseman]

 Paul Rubin <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
> Cliff Wells <cliff at develix.com> writes:
> > Still, that leaves Linux and Mac out in the cold.  But I'll admit you
> > met my challenge.  Most likely you can actually do most of the things
> > with Tk you can with Wx, it's simply a matter of how much effort is
> > going to be (for instance, it's certainly quite possible to embed Gecko
> > in Tk, but I for one am not likely to be up to the task).
> 
> I actually misunderstood your question about embedding a browser and
> thought for a while about what it would take to write or port a
> serious browser to use tkinter as its graphics layer.  The resulting
> picture wasn't pretty.  I wonder whether it's feasible in wxpython.


I'll point out that this has been done (in fact, many times).  For 
example:
      http://tkhtml.hwaci.com

(Integrating Gecko in has also been done, as a side note).

I'll highlight a meta-point regarding this thread: there's a lot of 
stuff in Tk that is available but not built into the standard library, 
nor necessarily well documented or even easy to find.  While this is a 
sad state of affairs, and to my mind no excuse (even though this is a 
common situation with open source software), it emphasizes that a 
cursory look does not tell the whole story.  

While I certainly don't begrudge anyone their choice of tools, it's no 
surprise that someone who's become more familiar with wxPython would 
have an unduly low opinion of Tk.  They've obviously spent more time 
overcoming the warts in wxPython, and wouldn't have spent comparable 
effort learning what it would take to overcome the warts in Tk - it just 
looks hopelessly flawed in comparison.  

Switch "wxPython" and "Tk" around in the above argument and I think the 
statements equally hold of course.

Mark