[Tutor] Gui recommendations requested: Which GUI wxPython or PyQT ?

[Magnus Lyckå]

At 19:41 2003-05-05 -0700, Tony Cappellini wrote:

>I want to do some GUI apps in Python, mostly for Win32 programs.

If you want *only* Win32, there are a few ways to write
MFC programs in Python, but I don't think it's very
common.

>Since I don't know either one,  I have to start from scratch with both.
>
>Which is faster to learn ? (I have done some event-driven programming
>before)
>
>Which of the 2 gui's above is better to use, in the long run ?

Why just these two? There seems to be four main condenders for
Python (not Jython) today: Tkinter, wxPython, PyQt and PyGtk.

PyQt is only freely available in a GPL version on Linux.
On Windows, the cheapest way to get access to PyQt seems
to be to buy Blackadder for a few hundred dollars. A full
Qt licence from Trolltech costs at least $1500, and a PyQt
licence is another £150. I haven't used it.

Tkinter comes with Python, which is convenient. It's lacking
bells and whistles, so you'd probably have to use Pmw or
Tix with it, but it still doesn't seem as feature rich as
wxPython, and the Tix included in Python seems to lack things
like grids.

I haven't used PyGtk either, but it's used by for instance
WingIDE. It's been rather ugly-looking on Windows, but there
are now themes that will make it look like a Windows 2000
or XP app, but I have just seen screenshots of that. I don't
know if there is anything odd with the behaviour.

Finally, wxPython is the toolkit I use, but I can't really
say I'm such an expert in the others that I know that it's
the best choice. I has a big user community with a very
active mailing list. One might worry about the somewhat
Robin Dunn-centris community though. He answers a very large
part of the questions. If the original designer of the
(python port of) the toolkit has to step in and answer
questions all the time, one might 1) wonder how easy to
use it really is and 2) wonder what happens if he gets run
over by a bus. Anyway, a wxPython book by Patrick O'Brien
and Robin is in production. I think wxPython has the most
features, at least among the free toolkits on Windows.

There are also minor players like PyFox, AnyGUI and PyFLTK.
And if you run Jython, swing will be the obvious choise.

>Are there any comparisons of Python Guis available ?

I haven't seen any really thorough comparisions.

For some more info, see:

http://www.thinkware.se/cgi-bin/thinki.cgi/PythonGuis


--
Magnus Lycka (It's really Lyckå), magnus@thinkware.se
Thinkware AB, Sweden, www.thinkware.se
I code Python ~ The shortest path from thought to working program