ready to use python, need help with GUI decision

[David MacQuigg]

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 18:15:44 +0000, Jonathon McKitrick
<jcm at FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> wrote:

>
>Hi all,
>
>I am totally hooked on what I have learned about python.  I am going to use
>it to develop a simple data entry app I need for some financial record
>keeping.
>
>I understand tkinter is official and simple to use, but many who use
>wxPython swear by it, and it is gaining ground.
>
>I would like to run on any platform, but that's not critical.  What I want
>to do is support an app that will grow over time, and should look clean.  I
>don't want to spend lots of time maintaining GUI code rather than app logic.
>
>Can anyone offer any advice?

I've tried TkInter, BlackAdder, and Qt.  My choice is Qt. TkInter
seems a little "unpolished", at least for the level of effort I'm
willing to put in, although I see some really excellent examples of
highly polished GUI's ( IDLE for example ) so I know it can be done.

What I use now is Qt Designer, PyQt, and IDLE.  This gives me an
*outstanding* GUI toolkit, an easy GUI Builder, a quick translation to
Python (using pyuic and a makefile), and a simple, but really solid
development environment.  I'm developing under Linux, but expecting to
run "native" on all platforms.  I haven't tried the Windows version of
Qt Designer.

I believe the licensing issue with Qt is overblown.  If your work is
purely non-commercial, use the GPL license.  If you are a typical
commercial developer, it should be no problem to pay $1550 per
developer license (no runtime royalties).  I've heard there are
problems for commercial developers who can't afford the $1550.  I
would say, don't worry.  If your project fails to make a profit, I
really doubt Trolltech is going to sue you.  I think they would be
quite happy to get the first $1550 of any successful project.

I think Trolltech's licensing is a model of good citizenship in the
open-source community and fair sharing of profits from commercial
work.  It allows them to contribute their best version (no
cripple-ware) to the open-source community, while still earning a
living as full-time programmers.

The only thing I would like to see on the licensing is some
clarification on dealing with the penniless commercial developer.
Perhaps a limit like "we won't ask for more than 10% of your sales".
This would only affect developers with total sales less than $15,500.

-- Dave