On 30 December 2010 00:58, rantingrick <rantingr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Tkinter: The good, the bad, and the ugly! > ----------------------------------------- > An expose by rantingrick > > > ---------------------- > The Good > ---------------------- > Back in the early days of Python --when this simplistic beauty of > programming bliss we enjoy today was just a tiny glimmer of hope in a > archaic world plagued by dark forest of braces and jagged caverns of > cryptic syntaxes-- our beloved dictator (Mr. Van Rossum) had the > foresight to include a simplistic GUI toolkit that we call Tkinter > into the stdlib. And he saw that it was great, and that it was good, > and so he rested. > > And when the first python programmers used this gift handed down from > the gods they were pleased. They could see that all of the heavy work > of cross-platform-ism landed square on the shoulders of TCL/Tk and all > Python had to do was wrap a few methods to wield the beast we all know > as graphical user interfaces. > > Life was good, people were happy...but darkness loomed on the > horizon... > > > ---------------- > Enter the Bad > ---------------- > However as we all know there exists no real Utopian bliss without many > pitfalls and snares. Since Tkinter is just a wrapping of some TclTk > calls the people realized that they are now at the perilous mercy of > another group of developers (psst: thats the TCL folks!) who have only > their own goals and dreams in mind and could care less for the > troubles of others. They realized that Tkinter was lacking. However > this lacking was not Tkinters fault, no, the fault lye with TclTk. And > to compound these problems they also realized that in order to fix the > design problems inherit in TclTk they must learn an obscure and mostly > useless language... TclTk!! > > -------------------------------- > Utterly destroyed by the Ugly! > -------------------------------- > And then the people became very angry... "What a double cross!" they > chanted. Why should we learn a language like TclTk just to fix > problems that the TclTk folks need to fix themselves? Would not that > time be more wisely spent in looking over code that is 100% Python and > modifying it? Not only would our community benefit but we can > propagate the maintainece and/or improvements to a wider group of > folks by removing the high entrance requirements. When we elevate > every python programmer to a PythonGUI maintainer then we will have > achieved community nirvana! > > We have now reached a point where the very simplicity we have embraced > (Tkinter) has become a stumbling block not only for the users of > Tkinter, but more devastating is the damage this TCL/Tk monkey has > done to keep our fellow Python brothers and sisters from learning how > a GUI kit works (behind the scenes) with each OS to bring all this > graphical stuff to life. > > ------------------------ > So what should we do? > ------------------------ > The answer is simple. We need a 100% Python GUI. A GUI coded in Python > from top to bottom. A GUI that is cross platform to the big three > (Windows, Linux, and Mac). A GUI that not only is easy as Tkinter but > also a GUI that can be manipulated by the average python programmer. A > GUI that not only teaches the fundamentals of using a GUI, but also a > GUI that teaches how a GUI works under the hood > > Then and only then will Python be truly what GvR intended. I want > everyone here to consider what i am proposing and offer some opinions > because it is time for change. > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > A lot of ranting indeed... I agree that Tk has a few shortcomings (I never use it myself), but since many people are currently using it, I don't see an easy way of replacing Tk with anything else. FWIW, I like the ideas of FLTK (very lightweight, just draw all widgets itself + has good OpenGl support), although the project seems to have lost its momentum. I think that you are suggesting something like that, but written in Python. Almar
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