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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-09T19:13:26+00:00

When programming a GUI (usually with Python and PyQt4), I try to organise my

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When programming a GUI (usually with Python and PyQt4), I try to organise my code neatly and I often face the same question:

How should the invisible objects (data) of my code relate to their visible widget counterparts (graphic representation)?

For instance, suppose I have a list of entries from a linguistic dictionary. Each entry is an abstract data object with various attributes and functions. Each entry also is represented graphically as a widget the user can interact with.

I believe there are four possible ways of organising them:

  1. the widget object is a child of the data object;
  2. the data object is a child of the widget object;
  3. the widget object and the data item are merged into one object (data are attributes of the widget);
  4. the widget object and the data object exist separately and the latter is fed into the former (e.g. as *args)

Now I am not sure whether or not there is some conventional agreement regarding this and I am not certain either whether these possible arrangements really make a difference.

What is the best practice?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’ve never used Python or QT, but it sounds like you’re looking for an organization called:

    Model-View-Controller

    The idea is, that your Data Object (Model) can live far away from your Widget (View). They are coordinated by a Controller.

    This is extremely prevalent in Objective-C / Cocoa, and to a lesser extent, Android.

    Most modern web frameworks are also based on this concept, as well.

    EDIT: At least to some degree, QT does as well:

    http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qq/qq10-mvc.html

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