Python and GUI

[Paul McNett]

sdoty044 at gmail.com wrote:
> Just wondering on what peoples opinions are of the GUIs avaiable for
> Python?

Python has, I believe, 4 compelling choices for GUI library: Tkinter, 
wxPython, PyQt, and PyGTK. Like everything in life, each has their 
relative merits and downsides. Briefly, here are my feelings on each, 
but I'm mostly versed in wxPython.


Tkinter:

Pros: comes with Python out of the box; terse; easy

Cons: owner-drawn (not-native OS widgets); limited in out-of box 
functionality; kind of ugly


wxPython:

Pros: easy to install binary on all platforms, active development, 
active friendly community of contributors, native os base widgets on all 
platforms.

Cons: hard to build from source on all platforms, everything but the 
kitchen sink comes with it, and some things are pretty buggy still or 
abandoned.

PyQt:

Pros: looks good on all platforms, easy to install and use.
Cons: licensing issues require you to understand lots of specifics; 
owner-drawn widgets.

PyGTK:

Can't comment because I haven't used it. The major con in my mind is 
that (I think) you need the Gtk library to be installed on all 
platforms, so on OS X / Windows the widgets won't look platform-native.


> All I am doing is prompting users for some data (listbox, radio
> buttons, text box, ect...).  Then I will have some text output, maybe
> a scrolling text message as things are happening.

I think each of the GUI libraries would be able to handle this easily.


> I have some minor things I need to do, for example, if Checkbutton X
> is clicked, I need to disable TextBox Y, and I would like to display
> the scrolling text (output)

Again, this is simply responding to events as they happen. You set up a 
callback function with your reactive code, and tell the GUI library to 
call that function when the event occurs.


> Ultimately, is it worth downloading and learning some of the packages
> avaiable for Python, or should I just stick to the Tkinter stuff that
> is included.

I think everyone should use wxPython, but I'm biased.


> More specifically, has anyone used the Qt stuff for python, easy to
> use?

I've used it and it is easy, yes. Relative ease I can't answer though, 
because I find wxPython extremely easy due to depth of use over the years.

Shameless plug: consider using Dabo on top of wxPython - we feel it 
makes wxPython even easier and more pythonic, but admittedly there's a 
bit of a learning curve there too. Even though Dabo is a full 
application framework originally meant for desktop database 
applications, it is modular and you can choose to only use the UI 
bits... http://dabodev.com

-- 
pkm ~ http://paulmcnett.com