[Tutor] Which Designer

[Alan Gauld]

"Steve Willoughby" <steve at alchemy.com> wrote

> However, there are some real disadvantages to Tk(inter) as well, chiefly
> that it is a least-common denominator which does a passable job of running
> GUIs but they don't look consistent with the native look of Windows or OS/X

The new themed widgets in Tk have changed that, they are built on the
native widgets and look just like any other GUI. Available in Tkinter from
Python 2.7 and 3.1

> or whatever.  And there is a lot of missing functionality.

This is still true although Tix addresses the biggest gaps - but is
sadly lacking documentation - you have to use the Tcl/Tk docs :-(
(I keep intending to do a write up on Tix but other things get in the way!)

And there are other bolt-ons too such as PMW.

> I'm getting into wxPython at the moment, and I have to say it's at least
> worth a look.  It's also available for every platform (but doesn't come
> with Python), and is far more complete, and just about as easy to use
> as Tk, but looks a lot more polished.

wxPython is definielt more powerful and in particular has support
for things like printing and drag n drop which are missing fromTk.

> There are other toolkits with their advocates as well, of course, but if
> someone were just starting out with Python GUI programming, I'd recommend
> looking around at your options before starting with Tk.

I'd still advocate Tk because
a) It comes with Python so is standard
b) It is also the standard GUI in Ruby, Perl and Tcl so once learned is 
oportable
c) It is best documented with many books etc featuring it
d) It is easy to learn the basic GUI principles that are valid in any Framework
    (a bit like learning Python is good becauise it helps you learn other 
languages)

HTH,


-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/