[Python-3000] back with more GUI planning in a few days...

[Greg Ewing]

Paul Boddie wrote:
> I think it would be 
> a bad thing if something in the standard library claimed to provide, or just 
> gave the vague impression of providing, a definitive solution for all 
> environments

I would never claim that PyGUI provided a definitive solution
for all environments (and as has been pointed out, no such
claim is made for anything else in the stdlib either).

First and foremost, I'm creating PyGUI because *I* want it,
for programs that I write. The most important thing about
PyGUI for me is the API. I've used quite a number of other
Python GUI APIs, and I've never found one that wasn't too
complicated or unpythonic or generally cruddy for my liking.
I want an API that fits in my brain along with the rest of
Python.

The next most important thing is to have it work easily on a
reasonably wide range of platforms, so that I can share my
programs with others without requiring them to jump through
hoops to get them working.

I don't particularly mind whether it gets into the standard
library. From my point of view it would be nice, but I'm
happy to include it along with the applications I distribute
if necessary. I'm hoping to keep it small enough to make
that practicable.

In the interests of keeping it small (both in terms of API
and code size) I don't consider it vital to provide a huge
number of widgets. I'd rather have a compact library with
10 well-chosen generally-useful widgets that I can build on,
than a bloated one with 500 highly specialised widgets.
(Okay, so 500 is an exaggeration, but someone mentioned
100 widgets. I flatly disbelieve that anyone *needs* 100
widgets for even the most demanding application.)

 > what if I want to write a GNOME application; which
> language should I choose?

This is more or less the opposite question to the one
PyGUI addresses, which is: I want to write a GUI application
in Python -- what toolkit do I use? PyGUI's answer is:
Use one that's specifically designed for writing GUI
applications in Python.

Such a thing currently does not exist. That is what
PyGUI is meant to be.

--
Greg