[BangPypers] What are you using for developing desktop GUIs?

[Dhananjay Nene]

On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
> Sriram Karra <karra.etc at gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> [...]
>
>> Isn't that the case with any cross-platform toolkit - if the intent is
>> to be cross platform?
>
> Yes but going inside the browser is more of a sacrifice than other
> approaches. I mean, just launching the app will start a web server and
> then a browser and take you inside there to do a task that should be
> done locally. You don't get any of the native widgets (which you would
> if you something like wx) and none of the behaviour you've configured
> for local GUI apps.
>
> I guess YMMV but if a local app launches a web server and a browser to
> get things done, it's a deal breaker for me.
>
> [...]
>
>> Can you give some specific examples of what is possible in a Python
>> app using a cross platform GUI toolkit and NOT possible with a webapp
>> architecture when the web server and the browser are running on the
>> same machine?

Event loops and asynchronous updates on the UI are much easier to
handle within a desktop app than writing JS+AJAX imo.
Also Rich UIs where you have lots of panels and components and based
on data entered in one you want to enable / disable or modify other
panels is much easier handled in desktop UIs since they have a easier
event propagation and listener models. The same can be done in
Javascript, but can get a lot more painful.
On both the points, YMMV


> Hmmm. That's a good point. You're planning to use the HTML+CSS+JS purely
> for presentation (instead of a gui toolkit). I suppose most things can
> be done although perhaps using a combination of HTML/CSS/JS for UI and
> then sending messages to the backend and doing the work there. This
> sounds convoluted to me and I think it's overkill for a web app.
>
> As for things not possible with a web app that work fine with a GUI, I
> can think of games and other resource demanding applications but those
> are not particularly cross platform anyway so you're right.
>