Hello all!
I’m looking for a simple to use GUI for my FOSS python project.
I have tried tkinter which is, uh, usable but seriously oldish? Good point seems to be it’s basically inbuilt in python so not hard to distribute.
PyQt is on the heavy end, I just need windows, scrollbars and buttons (basically, see below), also I wonder about the license of Qt (it’s always a PITA when trying to do C++ Qt) and also what you must package when you distribute the soft.
Must haves:
- Frames (I need two independent lists of files and another with global info)
- Text, buttons & colors, an “open file” dialog. Editable text field.
- Scrollable lists, with clickable icons (ex. “Filename [Delete icon] [Update icon]”)
- Async behaviour (so that a thread can update one part when it sees fit)
- Works on most popular Linux
- FOSS (I don’t want to change everything when the soft dies, or be on the enshittification ride)
Nice to have :
- Possibility to make pop out windows (like a settings manager)
- Mac & Win support
Cheers and thank you!
Would Streamlit work for what you’re looking for?
I love streamlit!
If your only problem with tkinter are the looks there are some theme extensions that can make it look more modern, like ttk bootstrap
I always used wxwidgets for small stuff. Another option is gtk (pygobject) but that is slightly more annoying to work with.
Will check out, thanks!
Why is pygobject annoying? Is it complex code, large stuff to install or something along those lines or is it just “annoying”?
With Gtk, I have seen some issues with rarely used parts of the API, but that should not be relevant to your rather simple use case.
On the road with wxwidgets Phoenix!
Thanks a lot!
What about SimpleGUI?
I don’t mind paying but all that corporate stuff always tend to end up as dead code or enshittifyed.
I mean I checked it out and it looks great, but there is no open source, right?
Idk about any need for payment, I just installed it with PIP and started using it right away
I don’t know if this something you’re deliberately trying to avoid. Apologies if you are, and I’ve missed the point, but
I gave up on doing anything in TK years ago. For all the effort to make stuff work in it, you might as well just use flask and have a HTML frontend. That way, you know it’s going to work on everything and includes remote access as a bonus.
Edit: for a lot more power with a little bit more learning curve, look at fastapi.
Your issue is that you’re trying to use Python. ;)
I’ve historically used PySide (the free-license version of Qt) but for simple stuff like you’re looking for, you might get some mileage out of the Toga GUI toolkit. It’s relatively new, but promising.
I’ve actually been pretty impressed with the whole suite of BeeWare stuff in my informal testing so far; it’s a nice little bundle of tools. (Specifically I’m interested most in their distribution approach; building Python apps for distribution is a giant fucking pain, but this group seems to have improved the experience significantly.)
Thank you, but they both seems to be not very used? I could find some information but really not very much.L Like how to make tabs :-)
