Removal of tkinter from python 3.0? [was: Fate of the repr module in Py3.0]

[Paul Rubin]

"Daniel Fetchinson" <fetchinson at googlemail.com> writes:
> Is it just me or others also think that it would be a major loss to
> remove tkinter from the python core?

That would be terrible.  Every time I've tried to use one of the other
packages it has led to installation hell.  Tkinter isn't great, but
it's extremely useful to have a gui module that's present
automatically in every compete Python installation and that is
reasonably cross platform.  I can write a Python/Tkinter app under
Linux and send it to Windows users and they can run it after a single,
very simple Python installation from the Windows .msi.  I have no
Windows development tools whatsoever and very limited access to
Windows boxes, so any Python code I deploy on Windows can't rely on
any non-Python code outside of the stdlib.

Also, because of tkinter's inherent limitations, I have the impression
that upgrading it to the latest and greatest tcl/tk release wouldn't
improve it much over the useful but low-rent module that it already is.
Therefore, that supposed "benefit" of splitting it out to an external
package is not much of a benefit.  

One of Python's traditionally best attractions has been the depth of
its standard libraries, and backing away from that would be plain
self-destructive.  Python needs more stuff in its stdlib, not less.
If Tkinter doesn't satisfy, then add Gtk (or whatever) to the standard
distro.  If that happens (i.e. some new toolkit is brought in and
declared to be the standard) then it might be ok to drop Tkinter but
it certainly shouldn't be dropped without a replacement.