Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
On Sat, 24 Jun 2023 at 15:57, Thomas Passin via Python-list wrote: > As a general comment (and I have not done anything tricky or complex > with Tk), MVC or the other approaches in a similar vein, though good, > can lead you into more complexity than you need, because of the extra > abstractions involved. Yes, for sure the GUI should not be doing domain > or business logic. Yes, it's good to keep database access separate from > the other parts of your program. But you may not need all the classes > and layers that you think you might. It all depends on what you need to > do, of course. > > Another useful design thought is to try to keep as much of the GUI logic > separate from Tk itself as possible. Basically, you would write a more > abstract (and simpler) GUI API, and then write an adapter that knows how > to make Tk do those things. One advantage is that this approach makes > it easier to change to another GUI toolkit later (say PyQt, for > example). Another is that it helps you avoid getting sucked into too > many Tk details that aren't needed for the program concept. I'd agree, although what I would call this is a GUI *skeleton*. It's not usually worth trying to isolate that from the actual GUI once you reach production, but it's a great first step as you're building. MVC and other such design patterns are excellent tools for learning and conceptualizing, but I agree, it's not something you have to feel locked into. When talking with students, I'll ask them to show me whether something is part of the model, the view, or the controller, but only to make sure they know what their code is doing. It's not like I would ask them to make three separate files (usually - maybe I'd pitch that to a struggling student as a teaching tool, but not in prod). ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
On 6/23/2023 4:16 AM, Andreas Heckel via Python-list wrote: Hi, Apologies for potentially mis-using this thread. But I have been struggling recently making exactly this leap from simple GUI examples to a more elaborate MVVM concept. Mainly I have been struggling finding nice example python code bases, that allow some understanding to the beginner, which I certainly still am, but also show enough complexity to see the concept in action. Any hints / links to github or similar highly welcome. If the list is not the appropriate place, I am happy if you email me directly. Cheers, Andreas -Original Message- From: Python-list On Behalf Of Diego Souza via Python-list Sent: Friday, June 23, 2023 4:14 AM To: aapost Cc: python-list Subject: Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions Have you considered improving the architecture itself, not your GUI library skills? I recommend you look at the Model View ViewModel (MVVM) concept and implement something similar (this is largely used in the Android framework nowadays). This would separate your program logic from the rendering and visualization. It would also make your program more reactive, decoupled, and easier to maintain. When you mentioned threads I immediately thought of this because it is much easier to implement parallel jobs and present results back in the GUI, as everything becomes reactive. This is overkill for a small project such as the code you showed, but I recommend it for larger projects. As a general comment (and I have not done anything tricky or complex with Tk), MVC or the other approaches in a similar vein, though good, can lead you into more complexity than you need, because of the extra abstractions involved. Yes, for sure the GUI should not be doing domain or business logic. Yes, it's good to keep database access separate from the other parts of your program. But you may not need all the classes and layers that you think you might. It all depends on what you need to do, of course. Another useful design thought is to try to keep as much of the GUI logic separate from Tk itself as possible. Basically, you would write a more abstract (and simpler) GUI API, and then write an adapter that knows how to make Tk do those things. One advantage is that this approach makes it easier to change to another GUI toolkit later (say PyQt, for example). Another is that it helps you avoid getting sucked into too many Tk details that aren't needed for the program concept. Here is a simple (or simple-minded :) ) example: class AbstractApi: """An abstract class for standardizing access to a display widget.""" def __init__(self, parent): self.parent = parent self.client = None def registerClient(self, client): self.client = client def loadPanel(self, panel_name, html): """Load html into display panel.""" pass def focusPanel(self, panel_name): """Select a named display panel.""" pass def handleSearchText(self): pass def writeStatusBar(self, msg): pass def handleLinkClicked(self, uri, source): """Handle a link clicked in the "source" display panel.""" pass These (let us say for the purposes of illustration) are the only things you need from the GUI. You can write a Tk-specific version of this, and the rest of your program doesn't need to know that Tk is even involved. If you want to change to say GTK, this class is the only thing that would need to change. Even if this approach turns out to be too simple for a really complicated UI, the closer you can come to realizing it the better. On Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 7:20 PM aapost via Python-list < python-list@python.org> wrote: On 6/21/23 09:47, Dan Kolis wrote: I've write a huge biotech program ( an IDE for synthetic biology ), and am slowly outgrowing TKINTER. Has anybody out there merged a little bit of TCL direct calls from Python 3.X to get more freedom then TKINTER for just some Windows ? I wish it looked better, but its 'ok'. I believe X11 IO is considerably superior for serious work the HTML. I mean 'serious' work. with lots of multi media windows. I am not talking about fb "Oh ! There is a window it opened inthe corner !"... trivial functionality. I don't know if it would help, but you can extend/add tcl/tk packages I don't remember the full instructions right off, but quickly reverse engineering my old stuff I think you just need to drop them in /usr/share/tcltk/ or equivalent. (I needed to do that to replace the terrible looking default file dialog for unix/linux with fsdialog.) then running something like the following from your Tk object self.eval('package require fsdialog') (reverse engineering the python tkinter so
Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions - reactive
I am not specifically having any problems implementing what I want to make work. Callbacks etc make it fairly easy to make TKinter react to things without any specific fancy plan for it. Add callbacks for real time changes early in any new notion, after it looks right go to the IO part make it react. Regards, thanks, Dan -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
If you have a problem,. ask a super specific question, here. If I can help, I will, but TKINTER knowledge is pretty spread around. Many others migth jump in, too. Its works, its slightly quirky, has no licencing hangups. X11 makes fine fine programs ! Keep hacking,Dan -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
RE: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
Hi, Apologies for potentially mis-using this thread. But I have been struggling recently making exactly this leap from simple GUI examples to a more elaborate MVVM concept. Mainly I have been struggling finding nice example python code bases, that allow some understanding to the beginner, which I certainly still am, but also show enough complexity to see the concept in action. Any hints / links to github or similar highly welcome. If the list is not the appropriate place, I am happy if you email me directly. Cheers, Andreas > -Original Message- > From: Python-list > On Behalf Of Diego Souza via Python-list > Sent: Friday, June 23, 2023 4:14 AM > To: aapost > Cc: python-list > Subject: Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions > > Have you considered improving the architecture itself, not your GUI library > skills? > > I recommend you look at the Model View ViewModel (MVVM) concept and > implement something similar (this is largely used in the Android framework > nowadays). This would separate your program logic from the rendering and > visualization. It would also make your program more reactive, decoupled, > and easier to maintain. When you mentioned threads I immediately thought of > this because it is much easier to implement parallel jobs and present > results back in the GUI, as everything becomes reactive. This is overkill > for a small project such as the code you showed, but I recommend it for > larger projects. > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 7:20 PM aapost via Python-list < > python-list@python.org> wrote: > > > On 6/21/23 09:47, Dan Kolis wrote: > > > I've write a huge biotech program ( an IDE for synthetic biology ), and > > am slowly outgrowing TKINTER. > > > > > > Has anybody out there merged a little bit of TCL direct calls from > > Python 3.X to get more freedom then TKINTER for just some Windows ? > > > > > I wish it looked better, but its 'ok'. I believe X11 IO is considerably > > superior for serious work the HTML. I mean 'serious' work. with lots of > > multi media windows. I am not talking about fb "Oh ! There is a window it > > opened inthe corner !"... trivial functionality. > > > > > > I don't know if it would help, but you can extend/add tcl/tk packages > > > > I don't remember the full instructions right off, but quickly reverse > > engineering my old stuff I think you just need to drop them in > > /usr/share/tcltk/ or equivalent. > > > > (I needed to do that to replace the terrible looking default file dialog > > for unix/linux with fsdialog.) > > > > then running something like the following from your Tk object > > > > self.eval('package require fsdialog') > > > > (reverse engineering the python tkinter source you can likely find other > > ways of doing more tcl direct stuff) > > > > I have not researched if there are some better, more featured > > (non-buggy) Text widgets implemented in tcl that can be dropped in, (I > > know several of the tcl drop in widgets I tried were lacking in > > refinement). > > > > From what I can tell, once upon a time there were better, more > > interesting projects and tutorials on extending tkinter, such as WCK > > (tkinter3000), but the only remnants of those remain publicly available > > are outdated unmaintained archives. > > > > You might also consider looking at the Grail browser source for research > > purposes, as it does some interesting things with some of the widgets, > > (parsing html and such), even though it is 20 years old now (and written > > in python 1). > > The update attempts from 10+ years ago have disappeared. (it's license > > is considered questionable from what I understand, so not sure if that > > is an aspect of it, the other being one of it's main features, python > > applets, is unsafe and was not easily fixable) > > > > You might already be beyond some of these things though. > > > > I know what you mean as far is feeling like the little bit extra you > > need pushes beyond what tkinter can do / makes you feel like you have > > outgrown the module. > > > > (I had to take a break from one of my projects and send it to > > development hell until my UI knowledge/skills improve after I found > > myself considering using xml schema appinfo annotations to store json > > formatted widget specific information, lol.) > > > > I have felt that sense of lack with most of the UI modules I have tried > > though. > > > > I don't know of a clear better python-onl
Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
Have you considered improving the architecture itself, not your GUI library skills? I recommend you look at the Model View ViewModel (MVVM) concept and implement something similar (this is largely used in the Android framework nowadays). This would separate your program logic from the rendering and visualization. It would also make your program more reactive, decoupled, and easier to maintain. When you mentioned threads I immediately thought of this because it is much easier to implement parallel jobs and present results back in the GUI, as everything becomes reactive. This is overkill for a small project such as the code you showed, but I recommend it for larger projects. On Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 7:20 PM aapost via Python-list < python-list@python.org> wrote: > On 6/21/23 09:47, Dan Kolis wrote: > > I've write a huge biotech program ( an IDE for synthetic biology ), and > am slowly outgrowing TKINTER. > > > > Has anybody out there merged a little bit of TCL direct calls from > Python 3.X to get more freedom then TKINTER for just some Windows ? > > > I wish it looked better, but its 'ok'. I believe X11 IO is considerably > superior for serious work the HTML. I mean 'serious' work. with lots of > multi media windows. I am not talking about fb "Oh ! There is a window it > opened inthe corner !"... trivial functionality. > > > I don't know if it would help, but you can extend/add tcl/tk packages > > I don't remember the full instructions right off, but quickly reverse > engineering my old stuff I think you just need to drop them in > /usr/share/tcltk/ or equivalent. > > (I needed to do that to replace the terrible looking default file dialog > for unix/linux with fsdialog.) > > then running something like the following from your Tk object > > self.eval('package require fsdialog') > > (reverse engineering the python tkinter source you can likely find other > ways of doing more tcl direct stuff) > > I have not researched if there are some better, more featured > (non-buggy) Text widgets implemented in tcl that can be dropped in, (I > know several of the tcl drop in widgets I tried were lacking in > refinement). > > From what I can tell, once upon a time there were better, more > interesting projects and tutorials on extending tkinter, such as WCK > (tkinter3000), but the only remnants of those remain publicly available > are outdated unmaintained archives. > > You might also consider looking at the Grail browser source for research > purposes, as it does some interesting things with some of the widgets, > (parsing html and such), even though it is 20 years old now (and written > in python 1). > The update attempts from 10+ years ago have disappeared. (it's license > is considered questionable from what I understand, so not sure if that > is an aspect of it, the other being one of it's main features, python > applets, is unsafe and was not easily fixable) > > You might already be beyond some of these things though. > > I know what you mean as far is feeling like the little bit extra you > need pushes beyond what tkinter can do / makes you feel like you have > outgrown the module. > > (I had to take a break from one of my projects and send it to > development hell until my UI knowledge/skills improve after I found > myself considering using xml schema appinfo annotations to store json > formatted widget specific information, lol.) > > I have felt that sense of lack with most of the UI modules I have tried > though. > > I don't know of a clear better python-only solution though that fits my > personal needs. > > So I have to lean toward improving my tcl / C in hopes that it might > help steer me toward that extra (which seems to be in the spirit of what > tcl/tk's intent is to begin with). That will be a while for me though if > I get there. > > > > > -- > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- Diego Souza Wespa Intelligent Systems Rio de Janeiro - Brasil -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: TKinter in Python - advanced notions
On 6/21/23 09:47, Dan Kolis wrote: I've write a huge biotech program ( an IDE for synthetic biology ), and am slowly outgrowing TKINTER. Has anybody out there merged a little bit of TCL direct calls from Python 3.X to get more freedom then TKINTER for just some Windows ? I wish it looked better, but its 'ok'. I believe X11 IO is considerably superior for serious work the HTML. I mean 'serious' work. with lots of multi media windows. I am not talking about fb "Oh ! There is a window it opened inthe corner !"... trivial functionality. I don't know if it would help, but you can extend/add tcl/tk packages I don't remember the full instructions right off, but quickly reverse engineering my old stuff I think you just need to drop them in /usr/share/tcltk/ or equivalent. (I needed to do that to replace the terrible looking default file dialog for unix/linux with fsdialog.) then running something like the following from your Tk object self.eval('package require fsdialog') (reverse engineering the python tkinter source you can likely find other ways of doing more tcl direct stuff) I have not researched if there are some better, more featured (non-buggy) Text widgets implemented in tcl that can be dropped in, (I know several of the tcl drop in widgets I tried were lacking in refinement). From what I can tell, once upon a time there were better, more interesting projects and tutorials on extending tkinter, such as WCK (tkinter3000), but the only remnants of those remain publicly available are outdated unmaintained archives. You might also consider looking at the Grail browser source for research purposes, as it does some interesting things with some of the widgets, (parsing html and such), even though it is 20 years old now (and written in python 1). The update attempts from 10+ years ago have disappeared. (it's license is considered questionable from what I understand, so not sure if that is an aspect of it, the other being one of it's main features, python applets, is unsafe and was not easily fixable) You might already be beyond some of these things though. I know what you mean as far is feeling like the little bit extra you need pushes beyond what tkinter can do / makes you feel like you have outgrown the module. (I had to take a break from one of my projects and send it to development hell until my UI knowledge/skills improve after I found myself considering using xml schema appinfo annotations to store json formatted widget specific information, lol.) I have felt that sense of lack with most of the UI modules I have tried though. I don't know of a clear better python-only solution though that fits my personal needs. So I have to lean toward improving my tcl / C in hopes that it might help steer me toward that extra (which seems to be in the spirit of what tcl/tk's intent is to begin with). That will be a while for me though if I get there. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list