Python -- (just) a successful experiment?

[Peter Hansen]

Paul Rubin wrote:
> I dunno about PyGTK but one of the more common complaints about
> wxPython is that it's not Pythonic enough.  And wxPython is probably
> the most popular Python GUI toolkit after Tkinter.  So people don't
> want C wrappers.  I think what they mostly want is a wide choice of
> good looking widgets.  They don't like Tkinter because its widget set
> is limited and what widgets it does have, look like crap.

I not only didn't like the look of Tkinter (but could have lived with it 
if that's all that was wrong with it), but I also simply couldn't figure 
out how to make it do the things I wanted to do.  Fairly simple things, 
I thought, yet things that would have (apparently) required delving 
deeply into the innards or obscure documentation to figure out how to do 
it.  In some cases, after extensive efforts to develop my own, I would 
stumble across an example of what I wanted.  Often I was surprised to 
find that it was relatively simple solution, yet it was always unclear 
to me how I would have figured out something like that on my own.

With wxPython, I don't like the non-Pythonic nature any more than I 
liked the non-Pythonic nature of Tkinter.  I don't use the wider set of 
existing widgets very much, since often I need to roll my own anyway.  I 
can always, however, figure out how to get what I want done, and it 
usually doesn't take me very long to do it.

wxPython fits my brain.  Tkinter didn't.  YMMV.

C wrappers?  Existing widget sets?  Pythonic nature?  None of these were 
really interesting or important to me.**  Getting stuff done, that was 
important.  I was and am able to do that with wxPython while with 
Tkinter I was not.  (And no, folks, this isn't a flame against Tkinter 
at all.  I fully appreciate that the "problem" was me, since many others 
are capable of getting the results they need from the framework.  But 
they weren't sitting next to me when I needed them. ;-)  )

FWIW,
-Peter

** "Pythonic nature" is actually of interest, but it's definitely not an 
overriding concern when you have work to do.