Choosing GUI Module for Python

[Simon Hibbs]

Having tried most of the options out there, personaly I've settled on
two.

I use Tkinter for ver simple GUIs such as single dialog boxes or
results displays. The advantage of it being built-in to Python
outweighs it's limitations.

For anything more complex, I go for PyQT every time. QTDesigner is a
full drag-and-drop GUI builder that rivals Visual Studio, and PyQT
comes with a script to convert QTDesigner XML files into Python code,
which you then subclass in your own script and attach your own code to
the GUI widgets. There's a longer learning curve than Tkinter, but
it's very much worth it for access to QTs mature and rich framework,
with excellent professional-class documentation. Sorry, but wxWidgets
which I have used doesn't come anywhere close.

The main objection to using PyQT untill now was that for commercial
development you needed to buy a license (it was free for GPL
projects). That's rapidly becoming a non-issue as the core QT
framework is now LGPL and Nokia have a project underway to produce
PyQT compatible LGPL python bindings under the PySide project.

Simon Hibbs