newbie question: should I learn TKinter or skip it and learn more advanced toolkit?

[Ryan Paul]

On Tue, 11 May 2004 16:28:00 -0700, Porky Pig Jr wrote:

> I'm in a process of digging into Python, and one of the problems I'm
> having is whether I should spend any time at all learning TKinter or
> skip it and start with more advanced staff like wx or QT.
> 
> I have no experience with GUI whatsoever, so anything will be a
> learning experience for me. The reason I've decided to post this
> question is that I see some contradictory information in different
> resources.
> 
> In 'Programming Python', learning TKinter is recommended -- before you
> move to more advanced toolkits. The rationale is (i) it is built-in
> and since it is also shared by TCL and Perl, it is well-maintained and
> always in sync with the latest version of Python, (ii) it is fairly
> simple to learn, small learning curve, easier to grasp some concepts
> before moving to more comprehensive production quality toolkit such as
> QT.
> 
> In some other resources TKinter is critisized as not well integrated
> at Python at all, so recommendation is 'not to waste your time and
> start learning GUI with either wx or QT'.
> 
> My intent is *not* to become professional GUI developer, but simply to
> get a handle on it, so if I write some utilities, I can provide some
> nice GUI if required. Yet of course, since I'm learning something new,
> it would be nice to learn it 'right from the start'.
> 
> So: should I spend some time or TKinter or simply skip it and start
> learning GUI with something like wx or QT?
> 
> (my background: solid C, enough C++ to understand the OOP concepts,
> Perl, too much of it to my liking, BTW)
> 
> TIA.

If you look back a little ways, you will find a thread called 'what I dont
like about wxPython' which you might find worth reading. I, and several
others, comment on a few strengths and weaknesses of TKinter and wxPython.
pyQT and pyGTK are both excellent toolkits, but you may have portability
issues. I have had no probs with pyQT on windows, linux, and OSX, but 
keep in mind that there is NO non-commercial distribution of QT for
windows. I'm pretty sure pyGTK doesnt work at all under windows, but I may
be wrong on that. The toolkit you choose to learn/use really should depend
on what it is you want to do. I would actually suggest getting a basic
understanding of all of them, and then choosing the one that is best for
you.

--SegPhault