Defining VCL-like framework for Python

[Gordon McMillan]

Graham Matthews asks:

> 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?

Tk is a GUI toolkit.  You are completely in charge of creating your 
widgets and making things interact. Complete control, lots of code.

A GUI framework is a pre-built skeleton. Much less code (usually): 
you override this here and that there and if you're lucky, that's all 
there is to it. Usually a big learning curve. And where your ideas 
don't fit the framework, you're in a prison.

You don't compile components - sometimes they're even "live" at 
design time. So tying things together means they have expose a bunch 
of meta-information, and your IDE is supposed to hide all the work 
from you. IMO, sometimes it works, more often it doesn't. Whether 
that's a flaw in the concept, I haven't decided. I lean towards the 
opinion that they're the fast food of software engineering - you can 
churn out mediocre apps at a fearsome pace, (as long as you can 
afford the components).

- Gordon