FYI,
An interesting email I received (offline) in response to a message I
sent to the bazaar mailing list.
Bazaar users may be familiar with the recent releases of bzr-explorer (a
gui plugin for bazaar). It is written in PyQt, but OS X users can't
_easily_ use it as PyQt is not _easily_ installable (requires building
some stuff from sources).
A person who runs a course on Python was using wxPython, but has
recently made the decision to move to PyQt becuase:
* Poor wxPython documentation.
* Very non-pythonic wxPython examples.
Cheers, Brendan.
XXX wrote:
···
Brendan,
On Thu, 2009-07-23 at 11:24 +1000, Brendan Simon wrote:
I've found pyqt/qt a pain on OS X -- mainly because I have to build from
one of them from soures (can't remember if it was pyqt or qt ??) and I
can't be bothered 
I use wxPython because you just download the dmg, install, and off you
go. It has the underlying C++ shared libraries and python swig
wrappers/interface in the one installer.
I have a Python course that I teach that currently uses wxPython. I
made this choice over PyQt or PyGTK because if wxPython's extra
portability -- I use Ubuntu but most course attenders use Windows. This
was 18 months ago though.
I find the wxPython documentation as bad as ever and it doesn't actually
seem to have changed at all in a year. Most of the examples are C++
transliterated to Python in an extremely un-Pythonic style. Even the
book presents wxPython code in a less than Pythonic style.
However, perhaps I have missed something?
I have more or less made the decision to abandon wxPython in favour of
PyQt -- nowadays it is as easily portable between Ubuntu, Solaris and
Windows (but it seems Mac OS X may be a problem), and the documentation
and support material seems far more comprehensive and much more
Pythonic. Bazaar Explorer being in PyQt and the chaos of the last
course two weeks ago have led me to the brink of making this decision.
I would love to have a wxPython version of bzr-explorer 
So I am wondering why you want to persevere with wxPython. Personally I
would have thought finding an easy way of having PyQt on Mac OS X was a
better route to go.
I think this is possible, but probably requires a bit of work. The
easier solution is to have a downloadable binary version of pyqt and qt
for OS X somewhere.
I think Bazaar Explorer being portable to the Mac OS X is going to drive
finding an way of ensuring PyQt is installable without fuss. I have a
Mac OS X machine that I use as backup to my Ubuntu machine for working
on client sites, so I have an interest in making sure everything I do
works on Mac Os X as easily as on Ubuntu. We could form a campaign
group?
I’m sorry, what does “non-pythonic” even mean? Is this referring to the use of constants like wx.EVT_LEFT_DOWN instead of strings? I ended up doing so much customization and encapsulation of common functions that I had to subclass and extend most of the wxPython objects anyway, and I can make the rest of my code as “pythonic” as I want. I have no idea how common this practice is but I don’t know how I could have written something maintainable otherwise.
As for the documentation, when we were deciding which toolkit to use, I had to refer to the class references for both wxPython and PyQT and found both incomplete and sometimes inscrutable. (I also found Robin’s book easier to follow than Mark Summerfield’s, but maybe that’s just me.) But I usually find that Google and this list will provide the solution if the documentation fails.
Nat
···
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 2:38 AM, Brendan Simon (eTRIX) Brendan.Simon@etrix.com.au wrote:
A person who runs a course on Python was using wxPython, but has
recently made the decision to move to PyQt becuase:
FYI,
An interesting email I received (offline) in response to a message I
sent to the bazaar mailing list.
Bazaar users may be familiar with the recent releases of bzr-explorer (a
gui plugin for bazaar). It is written in PyQt, but OS X users can't
_easily_ use it as PyQt is not _easily_ installable (requires building
some stuff from sources).
A person who runs a course on Python was using wxPython, but has
recently made the decision to move to PyQt becuase:
* Poor wxPython documentation.
The docs need some help and Robin is committed to getting it
done...it's just taking a while.
* Very non-pythonic wxPython examples.
This second point makes me wonder if the user even tried looking at
the demo or the wxPython wiki. There are tons of good examples in both
places. Because wxPython is a wrapper around a C++ interface, it's not
going to be completely "Pythonic", but I doubt that the wrapper for QT
is completely "Pythonic" either.
Other good examples of wxPython good are on zetcode:
And I've written a few tutorials here: blog.pythonlibrary.org
- Mike
···
On Jul 23, 4:38 am, "Brendan Simon (eTRIX)" <Brendan.Si...@eTRIX.com.au> wrote:
> A person who runs a course on Python was using wxPython, but has
> recently made the decision to move to PyQt becuase:
> * Poor wxPython documentation.
> * Very non-pythonic wxPython examples.
I'm sorry, what does "non-pythonic" even mean? Is this referring to the use
of constants like wx.EVT_LEFT_DOWN instead of strings? I ended up doing so
much customization and encapsulation of common functions that I had to
subclass and extend most of the wxPython objects anyway, and I can make the
rest of my code as "pythonic" as I want. I have no idea how common this
practice is but I don't know how I could have written something maintainable
otherwise.
Some people recommend Dabo at the juncture. I don't personally use any
encapsulation for my applications, but that sounds like an interesting
idea.
- Mike
···
On Jul 23, 12:25 pm, Nathaniel Echols <nathaniel.ech...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 2:38 AM, Brendan Simon (eTRIX) < > > Brendan.Si...@etrix.com.au> wrote:
As for the documentation, when we were deciding which toolkit to use, I had
to refer to the class references for both wxPython and PyQT and found both
incomplete and sometimes inscrutable. (I also found Robin's book easier to
follow than Mark Summerfield's, but maybe that's just me.) But I usually
find that Google and this list will provide the solution if the
documentation fails.
Nat