[Python] Python GUI app to impress the boss?

In article <96904b50.0209171305.6d65f574 at posting.google.com>, "Lee Gray"
wrote:
Bioreason makes some products in Python. You can see some screenshots of
their Python/Gtk products here: http://www.bioreason.com/lead.html and
http://www.bioreason.com/drug.html

Thanks, I'll show those.

Lee

You might look at:
http://www.scopal.com/information06.htm

A digital oscilloscope is controlled by a PC, using wxPython
and Python.

Colin W.

Lee Gray wrote:

lpgray at uop.com (Lee Gray) wrote in
news:96904b50.0209171305.6d65f574 at posting.google.com:
with python you have to choice of diffrent GUI libs. if you consider
wxWindows you can play around with the wxPython demo application that comes
with the download. on the other hand when you support win32 only the
win32all package has support for all the windows APIs and it has some
samples that get installed.

chris

In article <Xns928CED692541cliechtigmxnet at 62.2.16.82>,
Chris Liechti wrote:
.
.
.
You can have Python *and* .Net. Well, probably; it's
been promised, and, to the extent anyone knew a year
ago what .Net is, Python's part of it.

While we're pointing out individual applications that
might be of interest, please keep in mind that Python
is in serious production use at tens of THOUSANDS of
sites. Don't judge it solely by what you see of the
first two demonstrations someone happens to push your
way.

Incidentally, Python *is* a "Microsoft solution".
There are plenty of people within Microsoft who use
Python because of its productivity in Win* contexts.
It's hard for me to give concrete references for this
claim; essentially all the people doing so describe
their efforts only "off the record". I'm willing to
bet, though, that Python will be around for longer
than VBScript.

I read that all the time (and believe it), but that's not going to impress
my boss, much. He's still going to want something demonstrated up close and
personal.
I can certainly agree with that. There's already conflicting information
about MS' continuing support of VBS, the Windows Script Host and IE's HTAs
(HTML Applications) in the scripting newsgroups. That's one reason I want
to learn Python personally, but if we're going to use it at work, I need to
show something quickly to convince anyone (including myself!) that that's a
good direction.

Thanks,
Lee

Would he be impressed by a user interface that powers 2.1 BILLION web
documents? (ref: alltheweb.com)

I am about 2 weeks away from releasing HTUIL, an integrated client for
Windows, hosting Python, Perl, and/or native PLD2 displaying in a standard
web browser. See www.dair.com/hellopy.exe for a "hello" program written in
Python and distributed as a standalone EXE on Windows.

In article <vATh9.666$oY5.33977741 at newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>, Dennis
Reinhardt <DennisR at dair.com> writes
.......
Well hoping Dennis is genuine and has better control over virii than my
outdated anti-virals I tried running this 360k hello world.

Now I'm confused, I have K-Meleon 0.6 installed as my standard, but
hellopy.exe tries to use Netscape 4.78 (also installed on my machine)
and fails to display anything properly (I see the source in the browser
window).

Probably one of those pesky registry settings over which only Billy
Goats has any control.

I think I am genuine. The base code compiles entirely from source in the
PLD2 compiler language I developed (www.pld2.com); I think I have adequate
control.
Netscape instead of K-Meleon is a "registry thing". The code is looking for
the association of ".htm" and running whatever the associated program is. I
suspect if you have a local file called eggs.htm, that Netscape comes up
when you double click the file. Perhaps K-Meleon comes up if you click
spam.html. I dunno but the program is looking no further than the "open"
verb of .htm.

I have duplicated your experience with both Netscape and Opera on Win98. I
have neither a fix nor a facile explanation at this time. I have repeatedly
run both browsers on other CGI code in both Perl and native PLD2. I suspect
a recent change here is at fault. I am working on fixing this now and will
let you know.

Thanks very much for the report.

The server code for implementing CGI style headers was incorrectly
implemented. This is not a recent change but, rather, incorrect coding.
When I posted the code URLs, I believed that I had "repeatedly run both
browsers on other CGI code...". At this point, I can only conclude that the
CGI code has been run on IE only (where it does work despite the header
errors).

Rather than rush a fix here, I am going to hold off reposting until I have
done a proper release. The files sample files whose URLs have previously
been given have been deleted so that no one else serves as an inadvertent
beta tester.

I am sorry for posting immature code.

Well, our shop is win32 only, but on a personal level I'd like to be more
flexible (I mostly use Linux at home). Isn't Tk still considered the
"official" GUI lib?

For a newbie, what's easier, Tk or wxWindows?

Thanks,
Lee

Yes, tkinter is the official one, but many believe it should be wxPython
(www.wxpython.org) . wxPython is an extremely good x-platform
implementation. It is fast, with a native look and feel.

wxpython also has some good ide packages. Boa is pretty good.
PythonCardPrototype is also very good.

If you use rational rose, I've started work on a python implementation. It
will also work with visual modeller.


Rob

Lee Gray wrote:
[snip]
Matter of taste, really... I do prefer Tkinter, because I find it far
simpler than other GUI toolkits. But then, I've been into Tk for some years
now, and maybe I'm too used to it.

The first time I've looked at wxWindows and seen what's needed to open a
simple window, it just made me run away screaming ;-). But seeing it again
now, it's not that bad. See:

http://www.wxpython.org/tut-part1.php

In fact, example one in this tutorial would be much shorter in Tkinter than
in wxWindows, but examples 2 & 3 would require much more code in pure
Tkinter because of the status bar: it's apparently automatically managed by
wxWindows, but not by Tkinter. Adding Pmw to Tkinter would make things
easier ( see http://pmw.sourceforge.net ).

For the record, here is the equivalent (untested) Tkinter+Pmw code for
examples 1 & 3 in the wxPython tutorial:

--- example 1 -------------------------
from Tkinter import *

topWdw = Tk()
topWdw.title("Hello from Tkinter")
topWdw.mainloop()
----------------------------------------

--- example 3 -------------------------
from Tkinter import *
import Pmw

## Main window
topWdw = Tk()
topWdw.title("Hello from Tkinter")
## Status bar
statusBar = Pmw.MessageBar(topWdw)
statusBar.pack(side=BOTTOM, fill=X)
## Helper for menu items
helper = Pmw.Balloon(topWdw)
helper.configure(statuscommand=statusBar.helpmessage)
## Function displaying about screen
def showAbout():
showinfo('About Me', "This sample program shows off\n"
"frames, menus, statusbars, and this\n"
"message dialog.")
## Menus
menuBar = Pmw.MainMenuBar(topWdw, balloon=helper)
topWdw.configure(menu=menuBar)
menuBar.addmenu('File', '')
menuBar.addmenuitem('File', 'command',
'More information about this program',
label='About', command=showAbout)
menuBar.addmenuitem('File', 'separator')
menuBar.addmenuitem('File', 'command',
'Terminate the program',
label='Exit', command=topWdw.quit)
topWdw.mainloop()
---------------------------------------

Just see for yourself the one you find clearer.

HTH

Yes I agree. It is a matter of taste to some extent. I evaluated both,
coming from a position of not knowing either, and wx seemed much simpler to
me.

Also, PythonCardPrototype is an excellent system for using wx. It puts a
lot of the hard work in a separate file, letting you concentrate more on the
application logic.

I did that with tkinter. I ran, and ran. Then I found wx. I thought it
wasn't so bad. Then when I looked at tk again, it didn't seem too bad
either.


I settled on wx for the following reasons...
- I needed to settle on something, and pretty soon
- wx has a native look and feel
- wx is fast - compiled C++, whereas tkinter is a script. I found it to be
almost unacceptably slow in some instances.
- PythonCardPrototype would simplify things even further.

Rob

not "would" -- "does" :-)

Does wx work with ActiveState Python? I tried to use and as soon as
wxWindows imports, Python (2.2)
bombs and your back out at Windows with no error message. On another group I
was
told that this is a known issue and wxWindows doesn't work with Active State
Python.

Rob Hall <bloke at ii.net> wrote in message
news:3d8868b1$0$28683 at echo-01.iinet.net.au...

Works for me (wxPython 2.3.2.1, Python 2.2.1 from ActiveState, Windows 2000
SP3).

-- Gerhard

It has trouble running within the PythonWin GUI, but works just fine
with the Python interpreter itself.

I've found that it depends on how your brain is wired. There are some
people who love Tkinter because it just fits the way they think but just
can't understand wxPython no matter how much they try. There are other
folks where the opposite is true, I am one of them and that is the main
reason wxPython was created.

Chris Liechti <cliechti at gmx.net> wrote in message news:<Xns928CED692541cliechtigmxnet at 62.2.16.82>...
I've been playing with wxWindows and Boa Constructor. wxWindows is
pretty darn cool and will make a good demo for him. Boa looks good
but is still a bit rough (naturally, being alpha), but I'm looking
forward to future releases.

Thanks,
Lee

wxDesigner is also pretty nice (http://www.roebling.de).

-Dave

http://www.abo.fi/~iporres/Projects/fog0000000023.html

For SQL based applications PyQt contains a set of data aware widgets. PyQt
includes an example SQL browser, query, reporter in 180 lines of Python.

Phil

Actually both may be a solution. I've recently had good success at
developing an with a VB (not .net) front end and doing most of the
work in Python. Use each for what it's best at. Based on my experience with
project, I'd say that Python take about 25% of the code of VB to accomplish
the same objective. Plus Python objects tend to do what is expected so that
you can often guess at the syntax and be right whereas this is seldom true
with
VB objects.

Lee Gray <lpgray at uop.com> wrote in message
news:96904b50.0209171305.6d65f574 at posting.google.com...

Interesting... Can you point me to any links that may give me some pointers
in doing the same?

Rob

This looks very interesting!

Thanks,
Lee

Cameron,

I don't like to disagree with an icon, but I think that you are missing
a deficiency in Python that will ultimatly limit it's usefullness in
the vast majority of the software that is written in the world.

As long as Python refuses to admit that money is the focus of most of
the world's software, Python will be relagated to the same status as
FORTRAN, BASIC, and etc - except COBOL and VB.

Is there any way to get the Python world to allow for the processing of
monetary applications without some hokey 60's constructs that involve
in-line conversions or anticipations of calculation characteristics?

Regards,

terry

<snip>
What prevents the creation of a decimal money type? I agree, it would be
nice if python could do something akin to calculator aritmetic with types
like scientific (covered) engineering (improper scientific with the exponent
as a power of 3 and the (oops, forgot the term - mantissa?) more then a
single digit as in 12.2e3), fixed precision (1..n to the right of the
decimal). The forthcoming fractions are going to be interesting... (chinese
interpretation).

Be nice too if math could do rads, grads and decimal degrees.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Dave LeBlanc
Seattle, WA USA

I don't understand what exactly you are complaining about but is sounds
interesting - can you elaborate?

Oren

[Oren Tirosh]
Perhaps the lack of a FixedPoint type?

// m
-

Lee> Can someone point me to a good Python GUI app to demonstrate (other
Lee> than IDLE)?

Lee,

At IPC 10, Michel Sanner from Scripps took home the best paper award for his
ViPEr work. References:

http://www.python10.org/p10-awards.html
http://www.python10.org/p10-papers/10/index.htm
http://www.scripps.edu/~sanner/python/viper/index.html

Very nice! Thanks for the ref.

Lee

Absolutely nothing! And it has been done - sort of.

The problem involves the resultant code to implement a business
application. In the simple situation, all the developer has to do is
be aware on <every> calculation what specific type of variables are
being used ( integers for quantities, reals for percentages, etc...)
and what the result 'should' be - and then apply the appropriate
conditioning to the variables in the calculation and to the result.
You can surely contemplate the variability in programming styles and
implementations that this generates - most of which flies in the face
of the simplicity and readability promised by Python. Contrast that
with the following VB code: Amount = Qty * UnitPrice

The more difficult problem arises when faced with a true quality
assurance environment. The amount of validation rises exponentially
when the calculations in a program are implementation specific, as
opposed to language intrinsics. Each calculation must be tested at the
limits of each of the variables involved - at each instance.

The quick reply to your observation is: Yes, anything is possible -
but is forcing a language into an environment to which it is not
intrinsicly suited a reasonable approach? All of the databases, that
Python can easily talk to, have a form of monetary data type. But when
those table fields are represented in Python (as well as some other
languages) they become a burden.

I think Python needs to incorporate an intrinsic data type that
monetary (as well as other decimal data types) can be represented by,
so that the above equation yields results consistent with the decimal
places of the input variables. This cannot be accomplished with
real/floats, and shouldn't be accomplished with overlays on integer or
character variable types. Python needs this data type, that is not
hardware oriented, to become truly mainstream and be a threat to VB.

I say this with all due respect to all the other positive attributes of
Python and it's flexibility to solve a myriad of other non-business
application problems.

terry

David LeBlanc wrote:
...
Nothing prevents it. In particular, nothing prevents implementing such
a type in Python itself. There are various implementations of decimal
numbers around, including one (not sure how mature and complete) that
meets the standards for decimal arithmetic behavior (as per the IBM Rexx
implementation). It seems to me a relatively simple problem, compared
with many others that are routinely solved by Python programmers. If
there's no single "best of breed" Currency extension that dominates the
scene (as, for example, Lemburg's mxDateTime dominates the date-time
handling scene) I suspect it must be because of a lack of demand, strange
as it may seem. Defining new types is SO easy...

So prove my suspicion wrong: pick an almost-there implementation,
complete it per your specs, release it, and see it take over the
world. How much effort can it be...?
That's just an issue of display, isn't it? Computations are just the
same whether the calculator is set to always display exponents as a
power of three, or not -- at least, that's how I recall my calculator
worked: a single button switched display mode from scientific to
engineering and back, but all numbers in the calculator's stack and
registers were supremely unaffected by it.
If by "fractions" you mean Rationals, that's another thing yet.

That's a completely different issue: math is a module, not a type.
In this case, what you want is simply a different module that wraps
math and multiplies/divides some arguments or results by appropriate
conversion factors. Still a pretty modest programming effort (all
of, what, 10 minutes...?). Modifying the math module to behave this
way upon some switch set in it should not be much more.

If you really think, just to take a simple example, that having
a sin function that accepts degrees rather than radians is
important for Python, why not just take the 10 minutes to
implement that (or 20 minutes, if you're keep to modify rather
than wrap the math module) and thus prove I'm wrong in suspecting
that such a project would be pretty much useless...?

I'll even volunteer to perform the programming part of the task
(not a huge commitment:-) if you undertake to deal with testing,
documentation, and advocacy (to get it widely used, and in the
long run to get it into the core by popular demand).


Alex

In addition to what's already been suggested, you may want to look at the
"samples" (demos) in the PythonCard distribution. They're small apps, but
quite demonstrative, especially considering the size of the code and ease
of use :

http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net/

Of course, PythonCard is based on wxPython, and that has a nice showcase
demo suite as well.

Finally, a nice (very VB-like) IDE for wxPython is Boa Constructor,
although you'll need to pull the matest version from CVS :

http://boa-constructor.sourceforge.net/

HTH,
fp

I wrote a GUI interface to another python console app to create maps for an
online game by reading the installed in-game graphics, 3D model and terrain
data, see it here:

http://www.thecalm.fsnet.co.uk/MapperGUI

--G. Willoughby

Lee,

I don't know if this is the kind of thing you are looking for, but I've
written an application for statistical analysis (the scientific kind)
which is available for download from http://salstat.sunsite.dk
(screenshots are available too). It's GPL'd, but rather new so there are
still some rough edges. The GUI was written using wxPython (absolutely
fantastic IMHO - the learning curve is a bit steep to begin with, but
shallows extremely quickly). Features:

* A spreadsheet like grid for data entry/display
* A html display window for the output of the analysis and the online
help pages
* Custom dialog boxes for each set of analyses
* Standard dialogs (file open/save and font choser)
* The GUI took a few weeks to write part-time and that was from scratch
while learning wxPython. And I'm a psychologist, not a programmer, which
means you will probably be up to speed in much less time ;).
* A windows installer containing all the required program (ie, non-icon
or help) files for a Windows box in one file (using the McMillan installer)
* Cross-platform capability - Windows, Linux and OSX (the OSX wasn't
even planned - it just happened to work!)

Have fun!

Alan.

Lee Gray wrote:

Perhaps this is really silly, but why don't you show Zope to your boss ?

http://www.zope.org/

not really a GUI, though

hth

Jerome Alet

Jerome Alet <alet at unice.fr> wrote in message news:<3D886F3D.9AE251F9 at unice.fr>...
I've heard of, but know nothing about Zope. I don't think it's really
applicable. I need a client GUI app to have him get the feel of
what's possible; and the back-end (Oracle DB) isn't going to change.

Thanks though,
Lee

http://starship.python.net/crew/aahz/FixedPoint.py


Alex

In article <2R%h9.109893$ub2.2324479 at news1.tin.it>,
Alex Martelli wrote:
Note that FixedPoint is *not* BCD, particularly IEEE-854 BCD. But it's
probably more than good enough for most applications, and it's extremely
trustworthy. Right now, I've been stalled for many moons on my BCD
module. But it's still on my list....

You could bring him the Star Wars: Episode II DVD:
http://www.python.org/Quotes.html

A few other polished programs written in python:

Visual Python: http://www.activestate.com/Products/Visual_Python/
PySol: http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/pysol/
Sketch: http://sketch.sourceforge.net/
Grail: http://grail.sourceforge.net/

Visual Python probably has the prettiest screenshot.

Jason

Stop there! Visual Python is a python plugin for Microsoft
Visual Studio, right? So what you see is Visual Studio,
which is AFAIK written in C++ with MFC. Or am I in deep
waters here? I think it's written _for_ python, not _in_
python.

lpgray at uop.com (Lee Gray) wrote in message news:<96904b50.0209171305.6d65f574 at posting.google.com>...
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks!

I've collected lots of links to a variety of very nice screenshots,
and I've been playing with the wxWindows demo and Boa Constructor. Boa
was a bit disappointing, not as an app, but because of its current
alpha status - but it's got great potential and I'll definitely look
forward to future releases. I'll check out PythonCard too.

Regarding .Net AND Python, that's certainly a possibility down the
road, but unfortunately I don't have the time to devote to learning
both at the moment, and if we definitely go .Net, no one (besides me)
is going to see any value in adding Python.

Thanks again... and feel free to send more ideas!
Lee

Lee Gray wrote:
...
Boa is in fact quite a bit alpha-ish, but after you're
used to the quirks and limitations, it is really great.
Also note that you should use the version from CVS
which is *far* more developed than the downloadable.

I've written a quite big wizard for 3D image processing
with wxPython, PIL, Stackless. If you like, I can prepare
some screen shots.

ciao - chris

This just in : the Python Daily URL (http://www.pythonware.com/daily/)
mentions this collection of classes and tools for UML modeling and
programming. I don't understand it all, but the sceenshot of the graphical
model editor sure is a killer :-)

http://www.abo.fi/~iporres/Projects/fog0000000023.html

Hehe... yep, that was one of 'em I bookmarked.

Lee

Hi.
I wouldn't mind a look - whats the address for your wizzard?

Rob

(Sorry for the screwed up quoting... I have to use Outlook at work.
:( )
[Gray, Lee P.] ---------------
Yeah, I tried to download from CVS, but being a complete noob
couldn't figure out how, short of tracking down and copying and pasting
every updated file. Any tips would be appreciated.

Yes, I'd definitely like to see your screenshots.

Thanks,
Lee

"Gray, Lee P." <lpgray at UOP.com> wrote in
news:mailman.1032381445.13579.python-list at python.org:
you're on windows right? then grab http://tortoisecvs.sf.net and install
the latest version. after that right click on an empty folder in the
windows explorer and select "cvs checkout", copy and paste the "CVSROOT" in
the dialog. you can find the cvsroot, or at least how it looks like on the
"browse cvs" page that you have apparently found.

the home of cvs is http://www.cvshome.org and these are interesting sites:
http://www.loria.fr/~molli/cvs-index.html, http://cvsbook.red-bean.com/

chris

Yep, Windows at work, mostly Linux at home. I'll check this out at work
tomorrow.

Thanks for the info!
Lee