[Python-Dev] What to choose to replace Tkinter?

[David Ascher]

> The Scintilla text widget comes close (and surpasses Tkinter in some
> respects, while coming short in others), but I know of no widget in a
> popular widget set that offers anything close to the Canvas widget.
> 
> There are other choices too, all of which have Python support already:
> gtk, qt, and the Mozilla toolkit (whose name I forget -- maybe David
> Ascher can fill me in).

The mozilla toolkits has more names than I care to remember.  =)  The most
generic name is XPFE, although there are some parts of it with nicer names
like XUL (pronounced Zool) and XBL.  It also heavily uses XML, DTDs, CSS,
etc.

Mozilla is definitely a long-term investment in our part.  For example,
currently it's not possible to have Python code inline in the XUL
(XML) code, and JavaScript is the only option there.  We'll be working w/
the Netscape and Mozilla crowds to fix that, but it's not there yet.

That said, Mozilla does have a fairly strong vision for the future, allows
some of the benefits of the web technologies to transfer to the GUI world
(designers, not coders, can do the UI work).

In terms of the closest equivalent to the Canvas widget, apart from XUL
itself, which is very hierarchical, there is the promise of SVG support,
which will give you a lot more than the Canvas.  That, too, is not quite
ready for prime time yet.

Hope this is helpful,

--david