Tkinter: The good, the bad, and the ugly!

[python at bdurham.com]

Rick,

> However, now Tkinter just looks old and dumpy.

Have you taken a look at the ttk module (based on tile) that ships with
Python 2.7/3.1? This adds native/theme-aware widgets to Tkinter. And it
adds additional widgets such as a treeview (which can also be used as a
grid), notebook, progressbar, scales, panedwindow (splitters), etc.

The widgets in ttk match each platform's standards and look as
professional as the equivalents found in wxPython/pyQt. Take a look at
the screenshots on this rather long page to get an idea of what is now
possible - "out-of-box" with Python 2.7/3.1.
http://www.tkdocs.com/tutorial/onepage.html

I've done GUI development in wxPython and pyQt, and until recently
*never* considered Tkinter. Once I saw what was possible with the ttk
module, I've started moving a lot of new GUI projects from these other
platforms back to Tkinter/ttk (enhanced with PIL module).

Why Tkinter/ttk vs. wxPython or pyQt
- professional looking apps are now possible (really!)
- very light weight install and distribution 
- works with both 2.x/3.x (not possible with wx)
- very robust (wx can be finicky at times)

Subjective: I also prefer Tk's geometry managers to wx's sizers even
though I learned sizers first.

You seem to be very enamored with wxPython. What have you found in
wxPython that's not available with the latest versions of Tkinter/ttk
other than an AUI equivalent and better support for RTL languages?

Malcolm