[Business apps for Windows] Good grid + calendar, etc.?

[Ryan Ginstrom]

> From: python at bdurham.com [mailto:python at bdurham.com] 
> Instead of the COM approach, have you considered using a 
> local, client based Python server as a container for your 
> business logic and GUI (DHTML, AJAX)? This would give you a 
> cross platform solution, without the typical browser/server 
> latency, and via techniques like AJAX, perhaps more of a 
> desktop look and feel? I haven't done this yet, but I'm 
> grappling with the same question ("how to create sexy looking 
> business applications using Python").

I have used a cherrypy server wrapped with py2exe for a "desktop server
app", but the local server in the browser solution has some weaknesses. Drag
and drop is one. Another is native dialog boxes. A third is problems with
firewalls. And although you can do keyboard shortcuts with Ajax, the
mechanism isn't quite the same. 

Also, using COM you can manipulate the DOM from Python, removing the need
for AJAX. In that case, your only need for JavaScript would be for prebuilt
library functionality (assuming you like Python better than JavaScript).

Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom