[Pythonmac-SIG] Crossplatform UI libraries best supported on the Mac?

[Karl Merkley]

On May 23, 2005, at 9:42 PM, Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> This is only half a Mac question, I admit, but the Mac aspect will be
> a big influence...
>
> I'd like to pick a crossplatform UI library for which Python has
> bindings, to start doing some programming in. I've used and liked Tk a
> lot in the past, but unfortunately it seems to be (1) way out
> popularity, (2) not moving forward in any significant sense, and (3),
> in my experience, often quite difficult to use on the Mac with Python
> and other Tk addons, due to compile issues.
>
> The flavors o' the day seem to be either QT or wxWindows. So, 
> questions:
>
> 1) Is either of these difficult to install or use with Python on the
> Mac, using a version of Python newer than that which shipped with
> Tiger? If one is easier, which one?
>
> 2) Similarly, for which is it easier to get third-party widgets and
> libs up and running, under the conditions stated above.
>
> 3) Finally, since I'm asking, a non-Mac question; which do people
> think is better, both in the context of using with Python, and in the
> more general context of being a good UI lib.
>

Just to give the other side of the issue . . . I don't do a lot of PyQt 
but for the instances that I have it has always worked great.  I do a 
LOT of Qt in a C++ environment across a wide range of platforms (Mac, 
Windows*, Linux, IRIX, HPUX, Solaris,  32 and 64 bit OS's).

I don't have any problems with the build environment.  Qmake takes a 
tiny bit of learning but it's not bad.  I am actually using CMake for 
the cross platform build environment for a very large project (>1M 
lines with multiple 3rd party libraries)  because it was a little more 
powerful/flexible.

Licensing can be a concern but I got my customer to pay for commercial 
Qt and PyQt licenses.  My customer is happy with the work that I do and 
I give them the tools they ask for more rapidly than I could with other 
GUI development packages (IMHO of course).  I am happy to pay some 
money to keep a useful tool alive since I am making a living by using 
the tool.

I made my initial decision about three years ago.  At that time I felt 
Qt was by far the stronger library and I have not been disappointed 
with that decision.

    Karl