[Pythonmac-SIG] Bob Ippolito's synopsis of Python(s) on OS X

[Jack Jansen]

On 31 Mar 2004, at 17:45, Kevin Ollivier wrote:
>> Yes, I did intentionally put wxPython, pyQt, and Tkinter in a bad 
>> light, I wanted to make it absolutely clear that they are not quite 
>> there yet.  I agree with Guido when he said that wxPython is the best 
>> among certain constraints in his PyCon keynote, but I personally 
>> would prefer and currently recommend to develop a separate Cocoa 
>> front-end altogether for most applications because the cross-platform 
>> GUI frameworks have significant bugs *AND* because you can and should 
>> take advantage of platform-specific features such as WebKit, 
>> AddressBook, etc. for many Mac applications.
>
> Well, although I agree with another poster that Bob's taking this 
> approach would distance some people from even considering Mac 
> development, my main purpose of writing this note is that we are 
> quickly working to resolve many of these issues on the wxPython front.

I agree wholeheartedly. While Cocoa may be a much better solution for 
mac-only developers the reality is that the majority of Python 
programmers are not mac-only programmers. And given the fact that Mac 
users already have the name of being a royal pain in the behind because 
Macs are lightyears ahead of everything else we should be careful not 
to reinforce that feeling, especially not when talking to a general 
(i.e. not Mac-only) audience.

Moreover, I think that by emphasizing that wxPython (or any other 
cross-platform solution) is pretty good  but not on par with Cocoa we 
would hopefully get the wx folks to look at Cocoa more and pick up the 
good points.
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma 
Goldman