[Pythonmac-SIG] GUI design tools

[Troy Rollins]

> >>  I
> >> thought someone had built a wxGlade package for OS-X.
> >
wxDesigner is available, and the cost of its being commercial is not
an issue. Its pretty limited functionality is more the issue. It does
not seem capable of building complex windows, more aimed at dialog
boxes, and even then the controls are not particularly... graceful.

wxGlade is obviously available, and a few others, but they all are
buggy, with interface glitches, and crashing being pretty common. That
sort of tool does not make one more productive, nor does it have much
of an educational benefit for new developers.

In my tour of the available tools on OSX for developers wanting an
IDE, I've found that only WingIDE is stable and fully featured, though
it runs only in X11. There is no interface builder for X-Plat
development on OSX which is ready for prime-time that I have seen.

This leads me to believe that for general users, wanting to move to
Python from other high-level scripting languages which DO include an
IDE (Flash, Director, Revolution, RealBasic), OSX is NOT the platform
to do it on. The tools landscape is much less refined, and the options
far fewer, and a whole lot more buggy. Both Windows and Linux have
many better options for designing GUIs, as well as scripting and
debugging. My recommendation for developers who want to make the
switch to Python, but need to be productive relatively quickly... stay
away from OSX. Which is extremely difficult for me to say, since over
the last few years I have converted my entire company to OSX.

Time to make room for some Linux boxes, as Linux has commercial tools
available. I think many of us want open-source, but commercial tool
kits, with commercial refinements and support.
-- 
Troy Rollins
RPSystems, Ltd.
www.rpsystems.net