UI toolkits for Python

[Paul Rubin]

Kenneth McDonald <kenneth.m.mcdonald at sbcglobal.net> writes:
> 1) Which plays best with Python? Ideally, it would already have some
> higher-level python libraries to hide the grotty stuff that is almost
> never needed when actually implementing apps.
> 
> 2) Reliability of each?
> 
> 3) Useful external libraries for each?
> 
> 4) Ease of installation/use on OS X?

The answer to each of those questions points to Tkinter.  It comes
with Python by default (the least installation hassles of any
toolkit), is pretty reliable, has a reasonably Pythonic interface, and
I don't understand the question about external libraries.

However, Tkinter not most people's favorite, because the widgets look
crude, they don't resemble the native widgets of any popular platform,
and the widget set is somewhat limited.

That suggests you're not asking the right questions.

I use Tkinter because the Python gui's I've built so far have been for
straightforward functionality purposes without being fancy.  However,
if I were doing something for wide distribution and wanted it to look
sharp, at this point I think I'd go for PyGtk despite the preference
of many for wxpython.  

Finally, don't overlook the possibility of embedding a basic web
server in your app, and having the user communicate with it through a
web browser.  That turns HTML into your gui, which is very easy to
program.  It also lets you easily handle remote clients, multiple
concurrent clients, etc, and gives users a familiar and intuitive
interface.