What Python GUI APIs Are Out There? [closed]

Answer 1

I like wxPython or Tk.

Tk comes with the standard Python distribution so you don't need install anything else.

wxPython (wxWigets) seems much more powerful and looks a lot nicer. It also works well cross-platform (though not perfectly because it uses different underlying graphic API's on diff system types)

Answer 2

There are python-specific gui-api such as kivy (successor or pymt), pygui (based on pyrex), pyui and nufox, which do not compare with the more robust toolkits like wxpython, pyqt, pygtk and tkinter.

They are just extra optional tools.

The only thing unique about them is these are python-specific api, just like there are prima (perl-specific api) and shoes (ruby-specific api). It helps us to understand that when tk is tcl-based port of api (and others are c and c++ based), then these api are specifically done for the respective three scripting languages.

Out of these, kivy is the most robust, whereas pygui's coding is mentioned to be very python-like, pyui is least robust but worth trying and all of these should be portable wherever python or python-based application goes.

Then there is jpype which is a toolkit usable with jython and pydev, and which is actually java's japi customized under python/jython-interface.

Answer 3

PythonCard is really easy to use. That's what I would recommend.

Here's their writeup:

PythonCard is a GUI construction kit for building cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, using the Python language.

The PythonCard motto is "Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible."

PythonCard is for you if you want to develop graphical applications quickly and easily with a minimum of effort and coding. Apple's HyperCard is one of our inspirations; simple, yet powerful.

PythonCard uses wxPython. If you are already familiar with wxPython, just think of PythonCard as a simpler way of doing wxPython programs with a whole lot of samples and tools already in place for you to copy and subclass and tools to help you build cross-platform applications.

Answer 4

I found this link a long time a go: http://www.awaretek.com/toolkits.html. It suggests a tookit based on your criteria. For me it suggests wxPython all the time. Anyway it gives you a bunch of scores on the various toolkits. What is right for me may not be right for you. But it gives you how all the tookits scored according to your criteria, so if you don't like the top toolkit for some reason you can see which ones are closest to your criteria.

QT/GTK/WxWidgets (formerly wxWindows) seem to be among the most mature cross platform GUI toolkits. The only issue is that none is installed with the default installation of Python, so you may have to compile the libraries. If you want something with no installation required that just runs, then go with TKInter because as has been mentioned it is installed by default with Python.

Anyway my criteria were 9 on Ease of Use, 10 on maturity of documentation/widgets, 10 on installed base, 5 on gui code generators, 10 on native look and feel for both windows/linux and 1 and 5 for the last two, I'm not big into Mac OSX (even with a 10 here it suggests wxpython).

Answer 5

I've been working with wxPython for a few years now and I like it quite a bit. The best thing about wxPython is that the UI feels native on the different platforms it runs on (excellent on Windows and Linux though not as good on OS/X).

The API lacks some consistency, but you quickly get used to it.

You can check out Testuff (shameless plug, as it's my own product) to get a feeling of what can be done with wxPython (although I must say, with quite a bit of effort).

Answer 6

An easy to use GUI creator for Python doesn't exist. That's amazing really considering small scripting languages like AutoIt and AutoHotkey have great and very simple to use GUI makers. Come on, Python followers, can't you do better?