Tkinter or wxpython?

[Paul Rubin]

"Chris Mellon" <arkanes at gmail.com> writes:
> No native look and feel - constrained by the browser.

Might or might not matter for the application, especially considering
that tkinter is part of the discussion.

> No control over browser UI idioms. I had to write this post twice
> because the text control lost focus and I hit backspace, going back in
> the history and losing my work.

Sounds weird, I'm used to having stuff in text boxes stay in the
browser, and why did backspace have that effect anyway?

> No native integration - no "open file", no "browse the filesystem", no
> rich drag and drop, no copy/paste.

File i/o and file system browsing are available from javascript if the
user grants permission.  File system browsing for the limited purpose
of file upload is available in regular html.  Copy/paste of ordinary
text is always available.  However, this type of requirement is what I
mean by a "good reason" to write a desktop gui.  It applies to some
applications, not all.

> No or poor dialogs. Poor multiple window support.

Might or might not matter depending on the application.  Most dialogs
can be done with html.  Multiple windows are evil most of the time,
and should instead by done with multiple panes or cells in a single
window.

> More platforms to develop on and test with.

Compared to a desktop app?  I don't think so.

> Limited to CSS box model for layout.

Might or might not matter depending on the application.  If you're
doing a consumer app that has to look slick, you have no choice but to
use something like wxwidgets (tkinter won't cut it either).  If you're
doing a special purpose office or industrial app, slickness isn't
important.  

> The web is a terrible application platform. There is not a single web
> application in existence which has even half the UI functionality of a
> rich client application. 

Some of us consider simple interfaces with consistent, familiar
(i.e. web) elements to be a good thing.  Fancy client interfaces are
ok if you feel you need to make a style statement, but are often
unnecessary if you just want to get something done.

> There are some (even many) applications for which the benefit of
> global access and easy deployment makes up for the lack in
> functionality, but statements like "At this point I think nobody
> should write desktop gui apps without a good reason" are simply
> ludicrously misguided.

Well, I don't say that good reasons don't exist, I just see a lot of
desktop apps that could be done just as well as web apps, i.e. for
those, the good reason didn't exist.