GUIs - A Modest Proposal

Martin v. Loewis martin at v.loewis.de
Wed Jun 9 15:28:05 EDT 2010


> But whenever I
>    write a program that someone else is going to use, it has to have a
> GUI. Is that not true for most people?

Most definitely not. Of the programs I recently wrote for other people,
they either:
- were command line scripts, meant to use for sysadmin jobs (and I
   wrote them for the sysadmin people around me), or
- were web application, most of them written with Django

I have written 3 GUI applications in the last five years, one in 
Tkinter, the other two in Java Swing (one being a Swing reimplementation
of the Tkinter code because the users needed Java).

In addition, I *contributed* to GUI applications that others had 
written, mainly IDLE.

>    That, in my opinion, is where a replacement for Tkinter should be
> aimed: the beginning graphics programmer.
>    But if it is built on the right foundation (which Tkinter seems not
> to be), it could be extended to cover
>    far more useful cases than Tkinter can.

I personally think that Tkinter is excellent for the beginning graphics 
programmer.

>    I don't think so. Even vast libraries of well-written code haven't
> become the standard. I seem to remember a
>    DEC assembler manual from the last century, which said "A standard
> doesn't have to be optimal, it just has to be
>    standard" (Feel free to correct me on that one. The last century
> seems like a long time ago).

See, that's exactly because Tkinter is the standard; I see no reason
for that to change (or, rather, no chance).

As a starting point, if Tkinter was replaced, an IDE similar to or
more powerful than IDLE would be needed to replace IDLE.

> It can't be me - I don't have the clout.

That's the reason why it won't happen. Everybody asking for change is 
not willing to lead the effort. Everybody who would be able and might be 
willing to lead the change fails to see the need for change.

Regards,
Martin



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