Question

It’s very overwhelming coming from something that helps you create applications straight forward to something with somewhat convoluted documentation.

Can someone please share a tutorial on how to create a simple Hello World application using Python. No, I don’t mean command line. I mean a physical window.

I’m trying to learn how to program in Python and so far all I find is command line applications, and I don’t really find use for them unless I can visually show off my skills.

So, where can I learn some Python GUI development. People have suggested wxWidgets, PyQT, etc. but once again, that means nothing to me, because I know diddly squat about them.

I need an up to date tutorial. :S

Answer 1

Here’s a great tutorial for wxPython (my GUI API of choice: extremely powerful, good community/mailing list, and cross-platform (it wraps the native platform’s widgets))

http://wiki.wxpython.org/Getting%20Started

Installing wxpython can be done through a simple setup.exe :

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wxpython/wxPython2.8-win32-unicode-2.8.10.1-py26.exe or

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wxpython/wxPython2.8-win32-unicode-2.8.10.1-py25.exe

(depending on python version)

Here’s a simple hello world, with a simple event bound to the button.

import wx

class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, None)
        text = wx.StaticText(self, label="hello, world!")
        button = wx.Button(self, label="press me")
        sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
        sizer.Add(text, flag=wx.ALL, border=20)
        sizer.Add(button, flag=wx.ALL, border=20)

        self.SetSizer(sizer)
        self.Layout()
        self.Show(True)
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.on_button, button)

    def on_button(self, event):
        wx.MessageBox("Hey!")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = wx.App(False)
    f = MyFrame()

or, an even simpler example:

import wx
app = wx.PySimpleApp()
frame = wx.Frame(None, wx.ID_ANY, "Hello World")
frame.Show(True)
app.MainLoop()
    app.MainLoop()