Total Python Newbie needs geting started info.

[Ev J]

I am learning Python and wish to develop GUI applications to run on Windows.
I have installed the Visual Studio integrated shell (Ver. 12.0.21005.1 REL) IDE and the Python 3.3 interpreter. I have gone through some of the 3.3 tutorial available at http://docs.python.org/3.3/tutorial/.

The tutorial is all about using the interactive interrupter and writing little console programs to learn the language.

Before I go too far down this road, I need to know if I can/should use this environment to develop GUI applications. Is there graphical support for this - for example I can I just insert/move/set properties of buttons, combo boxes, etc. using an interface like the one in VBA?

If not, what is the best free IDE for me to use?
What is the best tutorial for the IDE?

I am a bit overwhelmed as to how to get started.

Thanks for any help.

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 3:03 AM, Ev J <shorep...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Before I go too far down this road, I need to know if I can/should use this environment to develop GUI applications. Is there graphical support for this - for example I can I just insert/move/set properties of buttons, combo boxes, etc. using an interface like the one in VBA?

Yes, you most certainly can. In the Microsoft world, you get a
language and its one GUI toolkit as a package deal; but in most of the
rest of the world, they're quite separate. Python can be used with
GTK, wx, TK, and a variety of other GUI toolkits; I happen to quite
like GTK, which I also use with Pike, a quite different language, and
can also be used with C and various other languages. So you can get to
know Python, and then later on choose one of several GUI toolkits, and
figure out how you want to lay out your window from there. The
tutorial sticks with the console because it's simple and easy to work
with; adding a GUI adds extra complexity, which can be left for later.

I don't know how much of "an interface like VBA" you'll get, but there
are graphical window builders. Personally, I don't use them; but if
you want them, they do exist.

ChrisA

[Alister]

Glade works quite well for GTK
I believe there is a WX version as well although i have never used it
i am not sure about gt or tk




--
Consensus Terrorism:
The process that decides in-office attitudes and behavior.
-- Douglas Coupland, "Generation X: Tales for an
Accelerated
Culture"

[Rod Person]

The integrated shell for Visual Studio does not give you the drag and drop GUI builder like is available for VB or C#.

I would say for a newbie you at Eric IDE:
http://eric-ide.python-projects.org/

It uses the QT widget set and intergrated with QTBuilder to allow you to design GUI via dragging and dropping components.

There are other GUI builders like GLADE for gtk, but QtBuilder is probably the closes to what you would be familiar with from using Visual Studio.


--
Rod

So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.
-Thucydides
History of The Peloponnesian War, 432BC

[Christopher Welborn]

+1 for GTK. It takes a minute to get used to coming from a VB background
(VB spoils people with its easy GUI builder). You write your own signal
handlers with GTK (and other GUI libs also), instead of having it
'auto-created' along with the button when its dropped. You also learn a
lot more. Qt and Wx look good, I just don't have any experience with
them. Glade for GTK is a very good GUI builder, but again, coming from
VB it's not what you think. It only generates a glade file (XML-like
file containing the layout for the GUI), but it's up to you to fill in
the actual code. The process is something like this:

Build a gui with glade and save it.

Load .glade file in your python code. (builder.add_from_file(myfile))
(where builder is a Gtk.Builder())

Grab objects from it. (self.button1 = builder.get_object('Button1'))
(where Button1 is the name of a GtkButton in the glade file.)

Write signal handlers. (def button1_clicked_cb(self, btn):)
(signal names can be defined in glade)

Connect signals (builder.connect_signals(self))
(where self is a class containing the signal handlers)


I'm no expert at it, but I really like using it. There are different
approaches and styles for using Gtk, so don't think my 'process' is set
in stone. Someone else here may have a different view. The great thing
about Gtk is the amount of control you have over everything. Large
projects may require a different style than small ones.
--

- Christopher Welborn <cjwe...@live.com>
http://welbornprod.com