Python GUI

[Tim Roberts]

danielnuriyev at yahoo.com (Daniel Nuriyev) wrote:

>To Joseph A Knapka: you wrote that anygui looks the same no matter
>what the underlying native package you
>use, right?
>It is stupid of me to contradict because I didn't try all of them on
>several OSs but can you explain how
>this happens?! 
>I am asking because there are two ways to implement such a package. 
>One is to correspond every AnyGUI widget to its native counterpart. 
>In this case Tk will not look like wxWindows etc.
>The other way would be to use something like the Canvas widget of each
>of the native packages to draw
>dot by dot all the numerous widgets and other auxiliaries in Python...

Let me ask you a philosophical question.  Which approach do YOU think is
the better one?

In my opinion, your first approach is the better one: use the native
widgets wherever possible.  Why?  Familiarity.  Lots of marketing
departments have the "cross-platform" bullet item disease, but the fact is
that very, very few people actually use a single application on multiple
platforms.  Thus, having KillerApp on Windows look the same pixel-for-pixel
as KillerApp on Linux is just not that important.

Much more important, in my view, is that KillerApp on Windows should look
and feel like a Windows app, and KillerApp on X should look and feel like
an X app.  That way, I don't have to "relearn" my conventions just for one
app.

If we accept that (and I always accept everything I say), then the most
sensible approach is to use the native widget set, so that you inherit the
standard native framework.  To me, wxPython is a great example of a toolset
that has achieved this goal.
--
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.