Defining VCL-like framework for Python

[Alexander Staubo]

In article <7i4bnp$kh0$1 at cronkite.cc.uga.edu>, graham at sloth.math.uga.edu 
says...
> Alexander Staubo (nospam-alex at mop.no) wrote:
> : > I, for one, agree that there is a need for a
> : > cross-platform GUI *framework* for Python (as
> : > opposed to a toolkit). 
> : 
> : Rightyouare. And hopefully not just a GUI framework, but a generic 
> : component framework
> 
> Can someone tell me what all these terms mean? What is the diff between
> a GUI toolkit and a GUI framework? And what is a component framework?

A GUI toolkit would generally be concerned with just visual elements -- 
"widgets": windows, buttons, menus.

Things like JavaBeans, Delphi, Visual (urh) Basic and others provide a 
somewhat higher level of abstraction in that you can have nonvisual 
elements -- broadly termed "components" -- that can interrelate with each 
other and with visual controls. A component, in Delphi parlance, is a 
sort of metaobject that can provide context for essentially "dumb" 
controls. For example, JavaBeans gives you nonvisual JDBC beans for 
feeding data to a set of "database-aware" controls. Since a database is a 
high-level, non-visual construct, you can't put it on the screen, but you 
can interact with it through a standard set of properties (eg., 
"TableName"), methods ("Open") and events ("OnChange").

It's not a big thing, not even a well-defined concept outside the realms 
of the specific development system. More significant is that you have a 
consistent protocol -- the "framework" bits -- for tying all these things 
together. The benefits of components are most apparent in a development 
environment such as that provided by Delphi. It is, imho, a Good Thing 
that one could emulate.

-- 
Alexander Staubo             http://www.mop.no/~alex/
"Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom smashers and a beautiful 
girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care 
not who writes the nation's laws." --S. J. Perelman