[Pythonmac-SIG] Solid GUI toolkits for Mac?

Robert Kern rkern at ucsd.edu
Wed Jul 27 08:55:10 CEST 2005


Jon Rosebaugh wrote:
> I'm wondering how many of the many GUI toolkits for python play really
> well with Mac OS X, including actual native look, instead of just an
> Aqua "theme" that doesn't look quite right?

wxPython and Tk are so-so in this regard. They use the real thing 
underneath for most of their widgets. Layout isn't always the best, 
though. Qt, AFAICT, just uses an Aqua-like theme as you suggest.

> I know of PyObjC (which scares me, because Interface Builder and Cocoa
> scare me; come on, a four-page tutorial with dozens of methods to
> write just to add a freaking toolbar? This is 2005, not 1995, Apple),
> PyFltk (which works, but the guy giving the compilation instructions
> admits he doesn't know much about python or compiling, which makes me
> a little hesitant to spend effort learning it), PySWT (which looks
> like it would do the job, but doesn't actually have any explicit Mac
> support yet, and also appears to not be very mature yet), and, um,
> that's what I've got. So. What are people using? (And if I've got the
> wrong impression of PyObjC, I'm happy to be enlightened.)

PyObjC is *the* way to do GUIs for Mac-only programs. Drink the 
Kool-Aid. Cocoa is probably the best-designed GUI framework I've yet seen.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter


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