Python: Best GUI dev. toolkit?

15    15 Dec 2015 22:32 by u/Schrodingers_Spy

Looking for some input on the best GUI framework for Python (compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux).

Thoughts?

Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for all of the feedback. I haven't come to a fixed conclusion but will be cracking open some Java.

14 comments

1 u/the_devils_lettuce 15 Dec 2015 22:56

I've used tkinter a bit. I think that's the easiest to get started with because it's a standard Python module (you don't need to install anything to use it). I remember when I was trying to write a Python gui app, I researched all the options I could find, but nothing was very satisfying. Kivy (http://kivy.org) is pretty awesome, but getting it set up on my Mac was pretty painful. This was over a year ago, things might be more streamlined now. Kivy is supposed to be cross platform and work on mobile devices as well. I hope this helps.

0 u/mort 16 Dec 2015 03:11

I recall having a lot of trouble getting someone else's tkinter code to work on OS X. I don't think it's there by default, nor was it easy to install, I can't remember if I got it working at all. Things may have changed since then though, or I may be remembering incorrectly.

0 u/the_devils_lettuce 16 Dec 2015 03:40

I think you may be incorrect, I primarily use OSX and all of my Python development has been done on OSX, and I know that I've used tkinter on my system. It's been a long time though, I don't remember if I had to do something special to get it setup. I'll try it out tomorrow on my Mac and post results if I run into any roadblocks.

Any idea what version of Python you were using?

1 u/blind-science 15 Dec 2015 22:58

I tend to get python via anaconda, as this also installs a number of useful packages for science / engineering stuff. However it also installs, QT / PyQT out of the box which is cross platform GUI stuff Anaconda Link and the Package Docs.

It installs Spyder for the IDE, but you have other options: IDE Integration

0 u/blind-science 16 Dec 2015 01:26

Forgot to mention the main reason for QT is that the open source GIS software QGIS using PyQT bindings. http://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/intro.html

0 u/el_cordoba 16 Dec 2015 00:47

I just superficially tried tkinter. Note that in 3.x it's a lower case t. In Python 2.x it's upper case.

0 u/redditor1255 16 Dec 2015 18:57

TKinter.

Its ugly as shit, but it looks the same on every machine and most of TKinter comes standard with your user's installations. Its also reasonably fast.