[Pythonmac-SIG] Crossplatform UI libraries best supported on the Mac?

[Bob Ippolito]

On May 23, 2005, at 8:42 PM, Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> This is only half a Mac question, I admit, but the Mac aspect will be
> a big influence...
>
> I'd like to pick a crossplatform UI library for which Python has
> bindings, to start doing some programming in. I've used and liked Tk a
> lot in the past, but unfortunately it seems to be (1) way out
> popularity, (2) not moving forward in any significant sense, and (3),
> in my experience, often quite difficult to use on the Mac with Python
> and other Tk addons, due to compile issues.
>
> The flavors o' the day seem to be either QT or wxWindows. So,  
> questions:

wxPython is the clear choice for cross-platform GUI for OS X right  
now.  It's more liberally licensed, doesn't have a brain damaged  
build environment, and it is a whole lot more stable and complete.  I  
would highly recommend ignoring Qt on the Mac right now unless you  
have a really good reason to bother.

> 1) Is either of these difficult to install or use with Python on the
> Mac, using a version of Python newer than that which shipped with
> Tiger? If one is easier, which one?

You ALWAYS want to use the latest wxPython on Mac OS X.  Just use  
Python 2.4.1 and wxPython 2.6, it will work fine (same packages for  
10.3 or 10.4).  Just make sure to install the TigerPython24Fix  
<http://pythonmac.org/packages/> package if you plan on compiling any  
extensions yourself.

(With regard to the Python that *does* ship with Mac OS X)
It's best to just ignore all Python components that Mac OS X ships  
with if you're developing redistributable applications.  They're  
already versions behind the rest of the universe and they aren't  
stable APIs.  If you ship an application that depends on a Tiger or  
Panther Python 2.3, you can be almost certain that it will *not work  
at all* in Mac OS X 10.5 (where Python 2.4 or newer would be expected  
to ship, and 2.3 will almost certainly disappear).

-bob