On 6/5/10 10:22 PM, ant wrote:
I get the strong feeling that nobody is really happy with the state of
Python GUIs.
Says who?
Tkinter is not widely liked, but is widely distributed.
I'm a strong advocate of Tkinter--there is very little that it cannot do.
WxPython and
PyGtk are both
powerful, but quirky in different ways. PyQt is tied to one platform.
And there are
dozens more.
Each has its strengths and weaknesses. They reflect the diversity of GUI
programming in general.
Whether or not we like graphics programming, it's not going to go
away. I get the
uneasy feeling whenever I start a new project that there should be a
'better' GUI
than the ones I currently use (WxPython and PyGtk).
That's debatable. These other toolkits have a decade or more of
development behind them. How are you going to improve on them?
Fragmentation is our enemy. Our resources are being dissipated. Is it
not time to
start again? We have shown that it is possible to do the right thing,
by creating Python3.
I'd say no. I used to be frustrated with the range of GUI options for
Python, but the issue was just to get started. I found Tkinter to be
useful for me, I was productive in it, and I have stayed with that.
I ask the group; should we try to create a new GUI for Python, with
the following
properties?:
- Pythonic
- The default GUI (so it replaces Tkinter)
- It has the support of the majority of the Python community
- Simple and obvious to use for simple things
- Comprehensive, for complicated things
- Cross-platform
- Looks good (to be defined)
- As small as possible in its default form
These goals are not all complementary. In fact, some of them, such as
"small" and "comprehensive," are mutually exclusive. Tkinter is pretty
small; people complain it lacks things. PyQt and wxPython are pretty
comprehensive; people complain about their learning curve.
The very diversity of GUI toolkits came into effect because Python is
very easy to extend and integrate with other C/C++ libraries. Writing a
GUI toolkit from scratch is much, much harder. Even a simple toolkit
like Tk has twenty years of developer-hours behind it. Do you really
think the Python community will be able to a) agree on the design of a
new toolkit to replace Tkinter and b) implement the code in a timely
fashion across multiple platforms? It sounds like an impossible goal to me.
--Kevin
--
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com
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