Tkinter, wxPython, PyGtk, or PyQt...

[kyosohma at gmail.com]

On Nov 28, 7:34 pm, "John Jameson" <jjame... at altoresearch.com> wrote:
> hi carl,
>
> I'm totally new with graphics for python. I'm using windows, but you
> make it sound like I need to know how to program with MFC to use them?
> Is this true? Can't you just stay in python?
> best,
> John
>
> I would like like to start doing some GUI-programming in Python, but don't
> know which library to choose.
>
> Tkinter seems a bit old. Correct me if I am wrong! The layout doesn't look
> as nice as for the others.

I've seen some powerful stuff done in Tkinter. While I prefer
wxPython, it's still a valid choice. If you browse the list, you'll
notice that Tk is going to be (or just has been) upgraded, so Tkinter
should start looking better soon.


>
> wxPython seems to be the first-hand choice for people doing W32-programming
> (with MFC-experience).


This one changes too often to be included in the official Python
distro. But the changes are also beneficial. If you have a C++
background, then this one should be extremely easy to pick up. I use
it in all my GUI apps now.

>From what I've read and seen, wxPython uses the native widgets on
whatever platform it is deployed on, so it should have the native
"look and feel" most of the time.


>
> PyGtk seems to be a modern, very clean and nice approach, but with poor
> W32-support. Is PyGtk a mature library with respect to version stability
> and documentation.
>
> PyQt is a huge library (thanks to Qt), but not free on W32, or?
>
> Is there any possibility that any of the above-mentioned libraries will be
> included as a standard library in any of the near-future Python
> distributions?

Tkinter is already included with Python and has been for quite some
time.


>
> I myself program on W32 at work, but use Linux at home. So, which one should
> I start with in order to reduce the effort of learning something new and to
> be productive in the shortest time possible?
>
> By the way, how do I most easily include plotting capabilities to my
> Python-apps?


The people on the wxPython user's group usually mention matplot for
this sort of thing. I think they combine it with wxPython's drawing/
blitting capabilities, but since I don't do that myself, I am not
completely sure of the implementation.

>
> Carl

Hope that helps some!

Mike