Everything good about Python except GUI IDE?

[Virgil Stokes]

On 2016-Feb-27 19:13, wrong.address.1 at gmail.com wrote:
> On Saturday, 27 February 2016 18:08:36 UTC+2, Dietmar Schwertberger  wrote:
>> On 27.02.2016 12:18, wrong.address.1 at gmail.com wrote:
>>> Isn't there any good GUI IDE like Visual Basic? I hope there are some less well known GUI IDEs which I did not come across. Thanks.
>> As of today, there's no Python GUI builder comparable to VB 6.
>>
> Thanks for stating this clearly. Everyone here has been trying to show me various ways to do the kind of things I will want to, but nobody clearly admits the limitations I will have to accept if I start with Python.
>
> I am starting to wonder if VB.net would be a better solution for the time being. I have learnt enough VB.net to manage my work but it is bloated and Microsoft dependent.
>
>> There are some like QtDesigner or wxGlade, but they either don't
>> generate Python code directly or they can only be used if you know the
>> underlying toolkit good enough to create the GUI yourself. You may try
>> out some, but I can almost guarantee you that you will come to the same
>> result.
>> If you want a GUI, create it yourself using either wxPython or PyQt.
> I will check it. I got the impression that you can create a GUI but that has to be converted to Python, and then you need a wrapper to put these forms in, and then they can be compiled or converted to *.exe with py2exe. Not a good way for development/debugging.
>
>> For engineering applications that's probably the weakest point that
>> Python has.
>> It's holding back a lot of people...
>>
>> Well, for most measurement or control software a GUI is not really
>> needed, but still people want it.
>>
> In the 1980s everyone was happy with inputs from the command line on a line editor, but today people expect GUIs with graphics and often even animations.
>
> It is surprising that a language which seems very popular does not have GUI development infrastructure in place these many years after it got into common use.
>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Dietmar
I agree (at least largely) with the author of this email, in response to 
Dietmar. I have been working with Python for several years and often a GUI is 
needed, not by me; but, for users of my software where my target is usually 
numerical and image processing with a "don't make me think too much" GUI. I have 
mainly used wxPython (which is rather good, with good support); but, I find it 
rather awkward in practice and making an *.exe for users that includes wxPython 
is often a tedious process (at least from my own experiences). Perhaps my skills 
with wxPython and its API are lacking :-( .

After re-reading some of the postings that are connected to GUI problems in the 
python-list, wxPython-users, and PyQT, it seems to me that an "improved IDLE" 
for Python might have helped to solve some of their problems. I am quite sure 
such a development would be well received by Python beginners and those 
migrating to Python from other languages (e.g. VB).

While working on my first wxPython GUI project, I actually switched to VB to 
test my GUI design and to create an *.exe for the project --- this went rather 
fast, considering that I had no previous experience with VB. Only afterwards, 
did I return to wxPython, for implementation in Python 2.7, which took much 
longer with extensive refactoring.

And Dietmar, please don't take this the wrong way, I also agree with some of the 
points that you have made. And I do like wxPython :-)