GUIs - A Modest Proposal

[geremy condra]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Stephen Hansen
<me+list/python at ixokai.io> wrote:
> On 6/10/10 3:17 PM, geremy condra wrote:
>> I mostly agree with you, but as Stephen points out you can't exactly
>> count on it being present now either, which more or less renders any
>> guarantee of backwards compatibility moot IMO. Whats the practical
>> difference between telling somebody that either tkinter works out of
>> the box or they'll have to satisfy an extra dependency and just telling
>> them that they'll have to satisfy an additional dependency in the first
>> place?
>
> Although that is true in theory, in reality-- In my experience-- You
> *can* count on it being there, except on Linux distributions which may
> choose to cut it out into an optional install, and where its also
> extremely trivial to add back in.

Sure, and that's why I said I mostly agree. Having said that,
it seems important to me to place the arguments against
projects like pygui in the context of the the arguments for
tkinter. The fact is that tkinter is not ubiquitous, and will on
some platforms require an additional dependency, forcing
those who aim for portability to take that into account. This
is exactly the same situation in which pygui finds itself, with
the exception that applications developed with pygui look
professional, while those made in tkinter generally look like
refugees from the Isle of Misfit UIs, although I'm told this
has improved markedly in recent years.

Geremy Condra