Python – GUI Programming (Tkinter)
Modern computer applications are user-friendly. User interaction is not restricted to console-based I/O. They have a more ergonomic graphical user interface (GUI) thanks to high speed processors and powerful graphics hardware. These applications can receive inputs through mouse clicks and can enable the user to choose from alternatives with the help of radio buttons, dropdown lists, and other GUI elements (or widgets).
Such applications are developed using one of various graphics libraries available. A graphics library is a software toolkit having a collection of classes that define a functionality of various GUI elements. These graphics libraries are generally written in C/C++. Many of them have been ported to Python in the form of importable modules. Some of them are listed below:
Tkinter is the Python port for Tcl-Tk GUI toolkit developed by Fredrik Lundh. This module is bundled with standard distributions of Python for all platforms.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to develop graphical user interfaces by writing some Python GUI examples using Tkinter package.
Tkinter package is shipped with Python as a standard package, so we don’t need to install anything to use it.
Tkinter package is a very powerful package. If you already have installed Python, you may use IDLE which is the integrated IDE that is shipped with Python, this IDE is written using Tkinter.
We will use Python 3.6, so if you are using Python 2.x, it’s strongly recommended to switch to Python 3.x unless you know the language changes so you can adjust the code to run without errors.
I assume that you have a little background about Python basics to help you understand what we are doing.
We will start by creating a window then we will learn how to add widgets such as buttons, combo boxes, etc, then we will play with their properties, so let’s get started.
Python has a lot of GUI frameworks, but Tkinter is the only framework that’s built into the Python standard library. Tkinter has several strengths. It’s cross-platform, so the same code works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Visual elements are rendered using native operating system elements, so applications built with Tkinter look like they belong on the platform where they’re run.
Although Tkinter is considered the de-facto Python GUI framework, it’s not without criticism. One notable criticism is that GUIs built with Tkinter look outdated. If you want a shiny, modern interface, then Tkinter may not be what you’re looking for.
However, Tkinter is lightweight and relatively painless to use compared to other frameworks. This makes it a compelling choice for building GUI applications in Python, especially for applications where a modern sheen is unnecessary, and the top priority is to build something that’s functional and cross-platform quickly.
