[Tutor] Troubled by Tkinter questions

[Terry Carroll]

On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Bob Gailer wrote:

> Is there a mailing list for Tkinter that we could refer folk to. I am a bit 
> troubled by all the posts that are Tkinter-specific. As one who has no 
> interest in Tkinter, these questions just tie up my in-box....

As one who *is* highly interested, I'd agree with you.  I'm fairly new to 
Python, and starting to use Tkinter for the first time, and am betting 
that my post was one you had in mind.

Tkinter is, it seems to me, a specialized enough area that there ought to
be a separate list (or newsgroup or some other more or less functionally
equivalent forum) for it, but I've been unable to find one.  I've found
lists for Anygui[1] and wxPython,[2] but none for the "official"  GUI,
Tkinter.

I guess because it *is* more or less the official GUI of Python, it's as
much at home in a Tutor mailing list as anything else, but I see it as
sort of a specialized area, not core language or product feature (heck, if
it were more of a core feature, it'd probably be better documented and
we'd have fewer questions!), much as, say, XML support or database support
(each of which does have its own list[3]) are considered specialized
areas.

In my defense, I went looking for a Tkinter mailing list to join before 
posting my Tkinter question here.  If there wre a Tkinter list, I'd join 
it.

> ...and since some of them don't even mention Tkinter in the subject, or
> worse, the body, it can be time consuming to weed them out.

That, I think, is something we should all try to avoid.  I try to use a
good subject header and make sure that the subject of my post is apparent
from the subject header; not so much for the benefit of people like you
who don't want to read things there interested in (although that's a nice
side benefit), but because I expect most people to read a moderately
high-volume mailing list like this in the same way I do: I hit delete on
most things *unless* I see a subject that's interesting (so messages with
subjects like "Help, please!" usually go deleted unread).

We should all make it a point to use good subject headings so that both
delete-by-default readers like me and read-by-default readers like Bob can
make better use of their time on this list.  After all, it's the list
membership who make it worthwhile, and every person who ends up leaving
the list because it uses up too much of their time is a diminishment of
the list's value.


[1] http://anygui.sourceforge.net/
    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/About/anygui-devel/

[2] http://www.wxpython.org/maillist.php
    http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/About/wxPython-users/

[3] XML: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/About/xml-sig/
    DB: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/About/db-sig/

-- 
Terry Carroll        |  "To have this rare opportunity
Santa Clara, CA      |    is a rare opportunity."
carroll@tjc.com      |    - Houston Rockets' Yao Ming, on being named
Modell delendus est  |    starting center for the 2003 NBA All-Star Game