Suggested GUI framework for Mac and unix?

[Russell E. Owen]

I have a free cross-platform Python GUI application that has to run on
Mac and linux. It is presently written in Tkinter, but for various
reasons* it may be time to switch.

I've heard many good things about wxpython and qt, but not used either,
and am wondering if somebody could tell me if either (or both) would
meet the following needs:
- Reliable on mac and linux. (I see that wxpython now runs under Cocoa
but I've not seen any reports on how well that went.)
- Compatible with matplotlib.
- Able to display (grayscale) images with arbitrary zoom. I currently
use PIL with Tkinter's Canvas widget for this.
- Compatible with a sound library for playing sound cues. I presently
use pygame for this and have been considering switching to PySDL.
- Compatible with Twisted Framework.
- Prediction is hard, but indications of a long-term future would be a
definite bonus.

-- Russell

*I have no wish to disparage Tkinter. I personally like it and am very
grateful to the developers. However, several issues are driving me to
look for alternatives:
* There is a known crashing bug in recent versions of Tcl/Tk that keeps
me at 8.5.11. Unfortunately I've not found a workaround.
* Tcl/Tk 8.5.11 is not compatible with Mavericks unless one runs in
32-bit mode.
* There are known issues with the Tcl/Tk event loop since the switch to
Cocoa. These are unlikely to be fixed, though in many cases it is
practical to work around them. This is more of a long-term worry than a
concrete problem.

[Mark Lawrence]

On 06/01/2014 22:31, Russell E. Owen wrote:

I'm no expert on GUIs but I've just picked wxPython via the age old
system of tossing a coin :)

> I have a free cross-platform Python GUI application that has to run on
> Mac and linux. It is presently written in Tkinter, but for various
> reasons* it may be time to switch.
>
> I've heard many good things about wxpython and qt, but not used either,
> and am wondering if somebody could tell me if either (or both) would
> meet the following needs:
> - Reliable on mac and linux. (I see that wxpython now runs under Cocoa
> but I've not seen any reports on how well that went.)

I can't comment but there's bound to be data on either the wxpython
development or users mailing lists.

> - Compatible with matplotlib.

Demo here looks good
http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2008/08/01/matplotlib-with-wxpython-guis/

> - Able to display (grayscale) images with arbitrary zoom. I currently
> use PIL with Tkinter's Canvas widget for this.
> - Compatible with a sound library for playing sound cues. I presently
> use pygame for this and have been considering switching to PySDL.
> - Compatible with Twisted Framework.
> - Prediction is hard, but indications of a long-term future would be a
> definite bonus.

From wxpython.org "(25-Dec-2013) wxPython (classic) 3.0.0.0 has been
released. No new features but lots of bug fixes in wxWidgets and of
course the bump (finally!) up to 3.0." See also
http://wiki.wxpython.org/ProjectPhoenix which is the port of wxpython to
support Python 3. I'm not sure when it will be released by I believe
we're talking months.

>
> -- Russell
>


--
My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask
what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence