[Tutor] Adding a GUI

[Alan Gauld]

"wormwood_3" <wormwood_3 at yahoo.com> wrote 

> I am just starting to learn GUI programming, with wxPython. 

Good choice. If you will be doing much in wxPython get the book.
It makes the whole thing much easier.

> The script heretofore was just run at the command line. 
> Would it make sense to add an option in the same script 
> to have it run in "graphical mode", 

You can do but personally I prefer to have two separate 
versions, one with a CLI and the other a GUI. They both 
share a common module which is the core functionality
represented as functions/classes so that the UI (either of them)
can call them as needed.

To do that the first step is to identify the core functions and 
refactor them into a separate module (or modules). To do 
that you have to remove all UI operations - print/raw_input etc
from the functions and make them completely parameterised.
(ideally they should be stateless too) The strings and data 
you need to display will be returned by the functions.

Once you have that done its easy to add a CLI a GUI and 
even a web interface.

> Anyone have any tips on adding a GUI to a pre-existing 
> script in a way that minimizes repetition of logic? 

I go through the process in the case study in my tutorial. 
Just scan through to the section Adding a GUI. It uses 
Tkinter but the conepts are identical.

HTH,

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld