[Tutor] Tk and Classes

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> of the python tutorial simply to see how the data types and 
> flow structures worked in python, and then from there 
> I dove straight in to Tkinter by way of Fredrick Lundh(sp?)'s 
> Tkinter guide.  

There is a good point to be made here in that Tkinter 
although class based does not need to use OOP to write a GUI. 
So there is the alternative approach of using the Tkinter 
classes but in a procedural style. This gives rise to lots 
of limitations when you try to move to bigger projects 
but is certainly doable in the short term.

The problem with learning OOP and Tkinter together is that 
you are likely to learn some really bad habits on both 
sides because they are both fairly complex subjects with 
more than one way of doing it - mosty of them suboptimal!

But if you just need to throw a GUI together to do a job 
and don't care about writing the same code over and over,
or creating your own widgets etc then you can more or 
less ignore OOP and just do Tkinter.

> possible to learn how to manipulate classes and use Tkinter 

Yes you can learn how to *manipulate* classes but much 
harder to learn *about* classes as well as Tkinter. 
Depends on how you define learning about classes I guess.
You can learn about how to manipulate classes from many 
aspects of Python, including files, sequences, etc...

> the way I choose to learn python, my programs have gone 
> through countless revisions as I have learned new tricks 
> and better ways of doing the same thing.  But I don't mind.   

And thats the key. If you can afford to spend the time
rewritring/refactoring code as you progress then its a 
valid approach. If you have to produce some production 
strength code quickly a more merthodical approach is 
probably better.

> thought it might help to see that there are many ways of 
> teaching yourself what you need to know

A good point and worth making.

Alan g.
Author of the 'Learning to Program' web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld