Python GUIs

#1

Post by gilad » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC

Re: Python GUIs

#2

Post by zzzeek » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 6:46 PM UTC

for Python GUIs (or "TUIs", or "a screen with colorful buttons and controls I can use with the mouse or keyboard but NOT a "GUI" " if that helps some of the responders to get through the day) I recommend considering a console-based GUI using the excellent Textual: https://textual.textualize.io/

this is the most modern GUI (in a console or not) framework you'll find for Python right now.

Re: Python GUIs

#3

Post by torstenvl » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 6:47 PM UTC

I'm a big fan of using wxPython instead of Qt or the other recommendations in OP.

https://www.wxpython.org/

wxWidgets is mostly licensed under an LGPL analog with linking exceptions intended to permit distributing binaries under any license you choose. No part of wxWidgets, including wxPython, has a license more restrictive than the LGPL.

Re: Python GUIs

#4

Post by BlackLotus89 » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 6:50 PM UTC

I sometimes miss the good old days of visual basic and delphi when I could create a gui that just worked in seconds, help pages via F1 and quick access to all events possible through simple gui clicks.

A few days ago I tried getting a simple PyQtWebengine example working using pyqt6 and failed miserably. It was a frustrating experience for sure

Re: Python GUIs

#5

Post by TheRealPomax » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:00 PM UTC

zzzeek wrote: post #2

for Python GUIs (or "TUIs", or "a screen with colorful buttons and controls I can use with the mouse or keyboard but NOT a "GUI" " if that helps some of the responders to get through the day) I recommend considering a console-based GUI using the excellent Textual: https://textual.textualize.io/ this is the most modern GUI (in a console or not) framework you'll find for Python right now.

Not really a GUI then, though? It's a UI (and from the screenshots, quite nice), but it's lacking the part that makes it "graphical" (which doesn't actually include "colors or borders", of course, we've been able to do those since CGA, and terminals, respectively).

Re: Python GUIs

#6

Post by F00Fbug » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:08 PM UTC

For vanilla applications PySimpleGUI is so easy to use: https://www.pysimplegui.org/en/latest/

Personally, if I'm writing software that needs to talk to a human I'll just build a web interface instead of a GUI.

Re: Python GUIs

#7

Post by hwayne » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:10 PM UTC

The guide lists four different GUI frameworks and the comments (so far!) have listed two more.* None of them really have claim to being the good "default" (except maaaaaaaaybe tkinter) and all of the "GUI-knowledge" is fragmented across them. I like Python but whenever I have to make a GUI, I shy away.

* Between starting and finishing this comment, someone brought up a third. Now we're up to seven!

Re: Python GUIs

#8

Post by minimaxir » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

Many of the Python GUIs here are GPLv3, which unfortunately makes them a nonstarter in a lot of projects.

Re: Python GUIs

#9

Post by okasaki » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:13 PM UTC

I tried to use GTK for a little project at work and I couldn't figure out how to make it look decent.

I ended up making a flask app and launching a browser. It seemed to be 100x easier.

I would prefer to make native GUI apps but it's just so much more difficult.

Re: Python GUIs

#10

Post by bmelton » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 7:15 PM UTC

hwayne wrote: post #7

The guide lists four different GUI frameworks and the comments (so far!) have listed two more.* None of them really have claim to being the good "default" (except maaaaaaaaybe tkinter) and all of the "GUI-knowledge" is fragmented across them. I like Python but whenever I have to make a GUI, I shy away. * Between starting and finishing this comment, someone brought up a third. Now we're up to seven!

Well I haven't seen anyone mention Flet, which is pleasant (if maybe not all that complete) if you have Dart/Flutter experience, so increment your counter at least one. :-)

https://flet.dev/