[Pythonmac-SIG] Newbie question on MacPython--Carbon & Cocoa

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 8 dec 2003, at 9:58, Kevin Walzer wrote:

> I'm a newbie to programming and I'm starting with Python because the 
> language is both simple and powerful. As a Mac person, though, I'm 
> interested in developing small GUI applications. I have played around 
> a little bit with Pythoncard and wxPython, and it seems to be a good 
> combination, but I'd prefer to take advantage of  OS X-specific 
> technologies for the interface.
>
> My question concerns the integration of Python with the Carbon and 
> Cocoa environments. Is it possible to build a GUI for MacPython with 
> Interface Builder via the Carbon modules? The documentation I've read 
> is not clear on that point.

There is an Carbon.IBCarbon module, that probably can be used for this.

>
> The same question applies to Cocoa via the PyObjC bridge. Could one 
> build a GUI with Interface Builder if the PyObjC bridge  is installed, 
> with Python code on the back end? Does PyObjC translate cleanly 
> between the two languages?

Yes, using Interface Builder was one of the explicit goals of the 
PyObjC rewrite of last year.

>
> If the answer to both questions is yes, which is simpler to work with?

I don't know Carbon.IBCarbon, but PyObjC is pretty easy to work with. 
The big advantage of Cocoa over Carbon is that Cocoa is an 
full-featured OO framework.

Ronald