[Pythonmac-SIG] GUI design tools

[Bob Ippolito]

On Mar 9, 2005, at 2:42 PM, Mark Phillips wrote:

> This may be a perennial subject. If this is an oft-repeated request, I 
> sincerely apologize for wasting bandwidth.
>
> I have a database application I would like to build in Python. I use 
> MacOS X as my primary machine, but historically I have supported old 
> MacOS and Windows machines. This makes it hard for me to abandon the 
> "cross-platform" mindset. I like tools that ease the creation and 
> deployment of applications.
>
> The ideal solution for me would be a tool set that is similar to 
> popular RAD tools such as 4D, Omnis Studio and the like. Using these 
> have spoiled me rotten as a programmer, and I find myself balking at 
> the installation requirements of the pythonic stuff I have looked at. 
> That is, as I work through the steps I wonder how on earth an end user 
> will deal with this.

First off, I'm pretty sure you're not going to find a toolset of that 
calibre for cross-platform Python development.

End users don't deal with this (unless the developer hates them)!  The 
responsible developer takes their application and its dependencies 
(including Python itself in most cases) and simply create a 
self-contained application out of it.  The end user doesn't need to 
know nor care about anything but the application.  The developer tools 
for doing this are py2app on Mac OS X, py2exe or cx_Freeze on Windows, 
and cx_Freeze on Linux (possibly other *nix too).

> I have experience with OOP, OOA&D and have about 16 years experience 
> writing various stand-alone, client/server and n-tier business 
> applications. I am getting a handle on Python, and I have written a 
> couple of "faceless" applications with it.
>
> Perhaps I just need a good "not quite a dummy" article, book or 
> something. I have read "Learning Python" and make good use of 
> python.org resources. Still, I haven't found joy with user experience 
> tools yet.
>
> I would be most grateful for any links or suggestions.

For cross-platform applications, general consensus seems to be that 
wxPython is the best approach.

-bob