Python and GUI

[Grant Edwards]

On 2007-05-24, Brian Blais <bblais at bryant.edu> wrote:

> I'd like to ask the Python community about this, because it
> seems to me that there is a real need that is not being met
> very effectively. [...] "...but wx is written in C++ and
> definitely shows, even in the Python port".  It's just not
> very pythonic.
>
> Then there is Dabo, which I personally have had problems with.
> [...]

I haven't tried Dabo, so I can't comment.

> Finally, consider wax (http://zephyrfalcon.org/labs/wax.html).
> In my view, this is *exactly* what python needs, and its not
> being maintained anymore as far as I can tell.  What I like
> about it is:
>
> 1) it is small...I can include the entire wax distribution in
>    my app with only a 780k footprint.
>
> 2) it is a very thin layer on wx, so when something doesn't
>    quite work, I can immediately fall back onto wx, mixing and
>    matching wax and wx objects.  it's just that the wax
>    objects have more pythonic calling and use properties

I did try wax, and I liked it.  It seemed much more "Pythonic"
than bare wxPython, and resulted in cleaner, easier-to-read
code.  When I tried it, it was still early in its development,
and there were still parts of it that needed to be fleshed out
(a lot of stuff was still unwrapped).  I contributed a little
bit of code (wrapping one or two more things), but I didn't
have enough time at that point to wrap and debug all the things
I needed, so I switched back to plain wxPython (I had a mixture
of wax and wx for a little while, but I that annoyed me too
much).

> Is there a reason that the port of wxPython doesn't include
> wax, or something similar?  It would seem pretty
> straightforward, when porting the wx to Python, to simply
> include such a wrapper.  I wish I were more clever, and had
> more time, to take over the maintenance of wax because I think
> it is the most straightforward, practical, and pythonic
> solution out there.
>
> Do others think like me here?

Yes.  I thought wax was a good idea, and there was a a good
start on an implementation.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! My nose feels like a
                                  at               bad Ronald Reagan movie ...
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