GUI programming

[Charl P. Botha]

In article <4fsdauofmus28t630866pgf4cu3n6bp16m at 4ax.com>, 
Dale Strickland-Clark wrote:
> "Charl P. Botha" <cpbotha at i_triple_e.org> wrote:
>>With wxPython, one has to get, configure and build wxWindows first (and this
>>does take quite a while).  
> 
> Nonsense.
> 
> 1. Download
> 2. Run Setup
> 3. Use it.
> 
> The whole operation takes less than 5 minutes.

Hmm, strange that Tkinter is still the default GUI then.

As I mentioned, I think wxPython is a great library, but Tkinter is still
easier to get running on the majority of different platforms.  In addition,
the wxWindows abstraction paradigm makes it more difficult to maintain and
debug, as it sits above the widget level and has to cater for different
widget sets on different platforms.  This abstraction results in a more
complex system and a much greater porting effort.

You may try to negate this point, but keep in mind that people who have
realised this are also working on a wxWindows that creates its own widgets
by making use of system-dependent drawing calls, i.e. the abstraction is
below the widget level.  This makes for a wxWindows that is more easy to
port and to debug.

Also keep in mind that I tend to think in a platform-independent way, where
you seem to focus on the Windows situation.

To summarise: I think very highly of wxPython, but, at this stage, Tkinter
is generally easier to get running on all the platforms that Python
supports. This situation could obviously change as wxPython continues
maturing.

Not wishing to start a Python-GUI-debate again,

-- 
charl p. botha http://cpbotha.net/ http://visualisation.tudelft.nl/