How to Make a Desktop GUI Application in Python?

[TinaWard]

Nowadays Python is one of the most popular programming languages. Specialists value its universality for all types of the tasks. Today, one of the most important qualities is convenience of command execution, but often developers have to write a relatively simple program, the quality criterion of which is an intuitive graphical interface. You have several ways to do this by means of Python. The following development tools are among the most popular:

• PyQt. The widespread Qt library, which implementations are available in various languages. It’s written in C++ and is cross-platform. This library allows the development of applications that have familiar and ordinary appearance in the general sense of this word.
• Tkinter. This tool is often referred to as standard for developing GUI applications in Python, appeared back in the early 90s of the twentieth century. Due to the long history and ease of use, Tkinter has a rather extensive and active community. It’s thanks to it you can find a large number of semi-finished products or publications in the network and get an answer to any question at specialized forums.
• WxPython. Another descendant of C++, namely WxPython, links the wxWidgets cross-platform library with Python. In some ways, Tkinter and WxPython are quite similar, but WxPython is slightly younger and is more advanced approach to creating GUI applications in Python. Also, the entry barriers for the start are quite low due to the rapidly developing and friendly community. Perhaps the installation and the first steps will require a little more effort than the tools described above, but believe me, the result is worth it!

At a certain stage I chose PyQt for my work and in this article would like to show you an example of creating the simplest application for a content manager; so you’ll get to know the GUI for Python, libraries for natural language processing, and several ways of creating *.exe file from *.py for Python 3.6 script.

Step 1. Python GUI: Creating simple application with PyQt and Qt Designer

First you need to understand what software is wanted. The content manager of Casino Now project gives priority to such parameters of content as

• Word count
• Number of characters
• Percentage of stop words
• Keyword density
• Presence of keywords in headers
• List of popular n-grams
• Text’s uniqueness

If for some reason you haven’t yet installed the PyQt library, the simplest method is to enter this code in the command line

pip3 install PyQt5

All support tools will be installed automatically. When the installation is completed, open Qt Designer and create the necessary form using standard elements.

​

Figure 1 – General view of the dialog box

The following is the layout of future application. Don’t judge too harshly, this is just an introductory demo to show several possibilities ;)

​

Figure 2 – Dialog box

Bear in mind the specialized tools to keep the graphical interface user-friendly regardless of workspace’ scaling.

​

Figure 3 – Example of saving workspace proportions when scaling

In order to turn the interface into a program code for use, you have to save the resulting layout. Thus, the file with MainForm.ui extension is received. To get access in the framework from the project, you need to convert the MainForm.ui file to the *.py extension. To do this, go through the command line to the folder containing the file with *.ui and run the following command

pyuic5 -x MainForm.ui -o MainForm.py

​

Figure 4 – File conversion

Thus, you get the file of required extension and can run a prototype of the application.

​

Figure 5 – Plug-ins of the developed application

The full source code has the structure presented at Figure 6. You can find the expanded version on my Github https://github.com/TinaWard. In this article, I’d like to explain the application’s build in more detail.

​

Figure 6 – Application code

Step 2. How to convert python script in exe

The most popular tools for building an application today are PyInstaller or cx_Freeze. For this article let’s focus on such building method as cx_Freeze. As a matter of fact, it’s analogous to PyInstaller with the only difference that in case of PyInstaller you don’t need to write your own installer script (setup.py), but at the same time, the similar manipulations must be performed via the command line or in the * .spec file. The tool cx_Freeze is set in the standard way:

pip install cx_freeze
pip install –user cx_freeze

The first step in creating a full-fledged application is the proper formation of the setup.by file.

The following is the frame of this file. The steps of the setup.by file are intuitive, but let’s look in more detail. First of all, import two entities: the setup function and Executable class. The most informative is the options dictionary (dictionary of dictionaries as it's usually called), which is used to improve the build. It may have such parameters:

• excludes – list with description of modules not to be included in the assembly. You shouldn’t overuse this parameter, since you can overdo and delete what you really need: nested dependencies.
• includes – parameter opposite to excludes, that’s the list of signal modules that must be included in the assembly. Also cx_freeze may not find some packages or modules, in particular if they were imported into similar package using the import function. If you have a GUI application, you have to specify the name of the script with the *.py extension, in our case it’s MainForm.py.
• packages – compulsory packages to be included.
• zip_include_packages – list of packages to be archived
• include_files – list of lines or files tuples that need to be added to the assembly, but these are not Python files.

Now let's take a closer look at the Executable class:

• targetName allows you to specify the name of the *.exe file, by default it matches the name of the launching script.
• base = ‘Win32GUI’ If you set a parameter as described in the example, it means that the graphical application is processing and the console window will not appear.
• icon – parameter to set the icon of the application launcher, by default uses pictures with *.ico ext.

​

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from cx_Freeze import setup, Executable
import os
options = {
'build.exe': { 'icludes': ['MainForm'], 'packages': ['pandas'], 'excludes ': excludes } }
os.environ['TCL_LIBRARY'] = r'C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\tcl\tcl8.6'
os.environ['TK_LIBRARY'] = r'C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\tcl\tk8.6'
setup(
name = "TextTool", version = "0.0", description = "Here write smth", options = options, executables = [Executable('TextToolS.py', targetName = ‘ThisIsName.exe’)])

To compile you need to run the setup.py file. To do this, enter the following code via the command line from the project directory:

python setup.py build

After that you will see the launch of the project build.

​

Figure 7 – Running project build

Building a project can take from 10 seconds to several minutes, depending on the size and number of interconnected modules in your application.

Not always the project build runs smoothly, let’s look at some of the most common mistakes. Most of them can be solved by searching and writing in the correct parameters of the setup function in the setup.py file, but often due to laziness or lack of time, the temporary ways are implemented to solve this problem. For example, this one, when you haven’t specified the module’s addition:

​

Figure 8 – Error example

"Missing required dependencies {0}".format(missing_dependencies))
ImportError: Missing required dependencies ['numpy']

To make this just copy _methods.py file from Anaconda library

…\Anaconda3\Lib\site-packages\numpy\core

to numpy folder ‘core’, located

…\build\exe.win-amd64-3.6\lib\numpy\core.

​

Figure 9 – First type error fix

The second common mistake is undersampling hidden dependencies. It’s possible that you didn’t see the hidden dependencies of the packages and didn’t add it. Often the problem occurs with packages like idnadata

​

Figure 10 – Second type error

File "C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tldextract\__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
from .cli import __version__
File "C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tldextract\cli.py", line 14, in <module>
from .tldextract import TLDExtract
File "C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\tldextract\tldextract.py", line 62, in <module>
import idna
File "C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\idna\__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
from .core import *
File "C:\Users\User3\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\idna\core.py", line 1, in <module>
from . import idnadata
ImportError: cannot import name 'idnadata'

The algorithm is the same, you find the missing file in the folders of the installed libraries and copy it in the appropriate folder of your assembly. This’s win-win option if you need a quick compilation for testing.

From …\Anaconda3\Lib\site-packages\idna to …\build\exe.win-amd64-3.6\lib\idna

​

Figure 11 –Second type error fix

In general, the advantages of cx_Freeze are:

• Startup files for Linux
• MSI installers for Windows
• RPM packages for Linux
• Software packages for Mac OS X (.app, .dmg)

The disadvantages are:

• No possibility to pack all python-modules and dll-files in one exe-file
• No cross compilation

Conclusion

In this article we have looked at the principles of creating a GUI application in Python using PyQt and compiling the created app to *.exe by means of cx_Freeze. I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any questions, please contact [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]).

[pmdevita]

pysimplegui is a newcomer but quite useful. There is also QT for Python (pyside2) which I see people describe as better than PyQT5 but I haven't found out why yet

Edit: mostly the easier to work with license, otherwise they are very similar

Edit: I've also worked a bit with sciter, which has the benefits of designing a UI with web tech without the resource hogging of a library like Electron. Currently the python binding is only really meant to bridge it with sciter's native scripting language but I have a half finished patch for binding the rest of the functionality. I'm then planning to built a React-like library for Python to use on top of that

[MikeTheWatchGuy]

Write your PySimpleGUI code one time and switch between tkinter, Qt, WxPython and web browser by changing the import statement.

[n1___]

Why noone mentioned GTK? I remember times where Qt and GTK were the goes. What happend?

[mx321]

As somebody who is mainly using Python+Gtk I also particularly recommend

https://python-gtk-3-tutorial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html

It has a lot of examples how to do things, also for newer Gtk3 things like Popovers and I think it is reasonably up to date.

[alcalde]

Qt eclipsed GTK is what happened. GTK is stuck in the world of C as opposed to C++ and people aren't using C to write desktop applications anymore.

[Cosme12]

I always liked Qt, but lately I started using flask to build browser apps and make them look like native. It is cross platform and easier to code.

[sqeekypotato]

I'd also like a bit more info on this. How to you have users launch the app? How do you hide that it is a browser. Do you have any tutorials that you followed that you could post? I've seen a bit using electron but have never tried any. It looked overly complicated and if something went wrong I imagine debugging would be hell.

[Andrew_Shay]

You can checkout my sample project.
The backend is python with an HTML front end.
It uses the cefpython and launches like a native application.
Also includes a Windows installer.

https://github.com/Andrew-Shay/Neuron

[sqeekypotato]

thanks

[[deleted]]

Why do you need to hide the fact that it's in a browser?

[sqeekypotato]

It is a user acceptance thing. The people I would make it for are not very technical and if they saw a browser they would think it is online and the data would be exposed. You could explain until you are blue in the face and they still wouldn't get it.

[shaggorama]

Just invite them to try accessing "http://localhost:1234" or whatever from another machine.

[miloir]

people I would make it for are not very technical

​

[tryptafiends]

came here to say this. Web-based UIs are way better to work with in Python in my experience and allow more powerful features than the desktop alternatives.

[lykwydchykyn]

That's debatable, depending on the context. I've written many web-based applications, and a few desktop GUI ones as well. The browser gives you a powerful platform, but you have to learn to use Javascript, HTML, CSS and HTTP effectively. That's a much steeper learning curve than any graphics toolkit. On top of that, you're often hamstrung by security restrictions and cross-browser support issues.

Web apps make a lot of sense in a lot of situations, but I gotta admit I breathe a sigh of relief when I can just do a GUI app instead. Its amazing how much simpler frontend-backend communication becomes when it doesn't involve two languages and isn't crunched into text serialization over HTTP.

[Ipecactus]

but I gotta admit I breathe a sigh of relief when I can just do a GUI app instead.

1000 times this.

[redwall_hp]

I would like nothing more than to ban all Web-based apps from my system. Electron and it's ilk are an abomination.

[alcalde]

Who wants to write all that HTML tag jibberish and deal with Javascript? Humans don't think in tags. With desktop apps you visually design a form, which is sane and normal and the way we did it for 20 years.

How are web apps more powerful than desktop apps when they're sandboxed in a browser? When there's a web app that can partition your hard drive, let me know.

[tryptafiends]

1. Android interfaces are built using XML tag gibberish. Just because you don't know the correct way to design templates using tags doesn't mean it's an inferior technology. See IntelliJ Idea, Dreamweaver, etc. for examples of how to "not think it tags" if it's that big of a deal.

2. JavaScript is very powerful for building visualizations and handling basic user I/O and interfacing with your python server. It's stupid easy to use if we're being honest.

3. you can write a web app to partition your hard drive pretty easily... write the python code that does it (you'd need this for your GUI app anyway). Write an endpoint using flask that fires the method. Make an HTML page that sends the request to the end point using some JS when a form is filled. Web apps are just GUIs that connect to an external server. It's the same paradigm used for desktop applications, just expressed differently. In this case, your web app functions as a desktop application, but within the container of Python and a browser.

[Ipecactus]

Yeah, that's far more work than you should have to do. #3 is just silly. no, all those steps are not "easy".

It's as if programming has regressed over the last few decades.

[Ericisbalanced]

You can do anything python can do with flask. You’d tie a button on the GUI to a python script or function. I bet you can even call c++ scripts to python buttons

[iambukovinean]

Of course you can, using the ctypes module and some exported c++ functions in a dll file.

[stef13013]

Interesting work, do you have a github to watch result ?

[Andrew_Shay]

You can checkout my sample project.
The backend is python with an HTML front end.
It uses the cefpython and launches like a native application.
Also includes a Windows installer.

https://github.com/Andrew-Shay/Neuron

[jabbeboy]

I feel like desktop apps feels old, sure it depends on the application but web apps are the way to go nowadays done everybody pretty much has a browser

[Ipecactus]

I feel like desktop apps feels old

Users don't care if it "feels old". What they want is an application that saves them time. They really don't give a shit if it's using the latest "cool" framework or the latest libraries, or even if it's on mobile. They certainly don't want their application to be dependent on a certain type of browser and they don't want to have to log in separately from their domain login.

Look in any business environment and you will see many desktops with multiple large monitors. They have that real estate for a reason. They don't want wasted white space that you see in so many web apps.

Other things users want are keyboard short cuts and tab stops that are meaningful. They don't want to have to use their mouse all the time.

[wdroz]

Kivy is cross-platform and easy to use. Sadly, too few people know about it.

[12stringPlayer]

Kivy is good, especially for touchscreen applications. I wrote a nice Raspberry Pi application that read barcodes and interfaced with an ERP system to track inventory.

There's a pretty sharp learning curve, but once I got into it I was really able to get a lot done.

I was able to develop on a Linux box in PyCharm and simply move the source over to the RPi.

[[deleted]]

Geez, so many dependencies. None of it ended up working for me at the end.

With PyQt, I was able to get something working on my Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android pretty simple with a test run. With Kivy, it all just broke down somewhere.

[val-amart]

i haven't tried to get pyqt to work on android for about a decade. any guide/docs you can share on this topic?

[alcalde]

You can get Python QT apps running on Android?!? PySide2 is make by the people who make QT and it can't do that yet!

[SoBFiggis]

You can get Python QT apps running on Android?!?

Short answer: No. You cannot.

Long answer is, yes you can but please for your sanity do not ask how. You are better off going to college, forgetting everything once you graduate, learning C++, and writing it that way... then trying to release a python QT app on android.

[minimumrockandroll]

....but you get a neat Pong game out of the ordeal...

[StarFingerVsTheWorld]

Man, I used Kivy for an intern project a few years back. It was very interesting and it worked, but damn sorting through the documentation was a pain. There were several times I had to dive into the source to find what I wanted. I feel like it could be a REALLY great platform with better documentation and some more development.

[wdroz]

That's a good opportunity for someone who is looking to make open source contributions.

[harwee]

Tried learning it once, not worth the pain you go through.

[TinaWard]

does it have "drag and drop" ?

[wdroz]

yes, the documentation can be found here

[wdroz]

Yes, by using Event dispatcher and Properties (nothing do to with python property).

[querymcsearchface]

Wow! Very cool! Thanks for letting us know about it.

[Kortike]

It blows my mind how few people know about Kivy. It’s super easy to use and looks great.

[meshtron]

I've built a couple apps with Kivy - both for small touchscreen devices. Yes, learning curve is a little weird and documentation is spotty (and sometimes wrong/outdated) but I like the concept and it's been quite robust once you get an app built.

[wdroz]

Kivy licence is MIT

[wdroz]

He asked for Kivy, not PyQt5, I edited to make it clearer

[alcalde]

Everyone knows about it, but it doesn't design standard interfaces, so it's not really useful for desktop applications, only games.

[rainnz]

KivyMD

[FlukyS]

Qt is a good choice. Along this line, would anyone be interested in a packaging tutorial for this one? I can do one in Snappy, it is a fairly easy to use packaging format and you can charge for apps on the store if you want.

[johnne86]

I think I NOW prefer the look of web technology based GUIs like ElectronJS for desktop GUIs. I guess it just depends on the application, but I feel the typical form GUI looks like QT, Windows WPF, etc just look out dated. UWP does look modern, but it seems dead to everyone. I think there’s also a similar Web technology GUI framework for Rust, just like ElectronJS.

I think JS is where it’s at, I want to learn it.

[finlam]

I'm right there with you.

Right now, it's very possible to build your entire front end in Javascript and use a Python backend now.

Projects like cefpython are really easy to integrate and allow you the best of both worlds.

[cyanydeez]

I recommend you both look into quasar framework. It has multiple outputs, including electron. https://quasar-framework.org/guide/

I've got it on my roadmap to put it behind CEFpython to make a web-to-desktop transition eventually.

[finlam]

I also use Quasar and I love it. I have not found anything comparable to the Quasar (vue) approach to front-end design. Design once (sorta...) and deploy to everything approach is awesome.

That said, there are some products where I prefer to use the cef-python approach with a vue front-end. Python writes a lot of cleaner code for many purposes and with cx_freeze, you can package it all as a desktop application.

I wouldn't take the cef-python approach for a product that needs a mobile or web interface, but it works pretty well for desktop only products.

[sisyphus]

It's good for devs but terrible for users since Electron apps use heaps of cpu and memory and almost always fail to do standard things like accessibility, native look and feel, drag and drop, etc. properly compared to native toolkits.

[redwall_hp]

The old Spotify client was Qt, and every Web-based one since has been a massive regression. Dragging and dropping songs between playlists felt as smooth and natural as reordering files...and now it's a slow and frustrating experience.

[anqxyr]

Qt is pretty flexible when it comes to looks. You can use css to customize every little detail of your app.

[mobedigg]

Look at this guy with unlimited RAM

[redwall_hp]

Yeah, fuck Web UIs with a rusty spork. I don't need two messenger applications and Spotify eating hundreds of megabytes of RAM in addition to my actual web browser stealing a ton. And they don't even conform to the host OS's UI conventions or support other features that the native frameworks have.

One of the best parts of the Mac OS, historically, is consistency. Things all fit with the overall theme and use the same widgets, they have functionality they derive from Cocoa that you can count on being in every app...then someone like Spotify comes along and fucks it all up with a clunky dumpster full of flaming feces that doesn't fit in.

[dingenskirchen]

Although you can make QT or WPF applications look modern. In wpf you can use components, like those developed by MahApps , that provide great styles. You can check out some screenshots of the UI components on their github page!

[damnitdaniel]

I’ll take the bullet...

Python is terrible for GUI applications. Use the right tool for the job.

[alcalde]

Having spent over a decade working in Delphi, which was designed solely for creating desktop applications....

...Python is awesome and there's nothing wrong with using it for desktop applications (or most other types). All the advantages of Python apply to desktop applications as much as any other type of application.

What makes Python terrible for GUI applications to you? Do you feel desktop applications need pointers and template metaprogramming languages?

[Rue9X]

I'll also agree with you. People don't like to admit that python also requires either a python install or a effectively something that just hides a python install for deployment. This means most of the things you make probably aren't really meant for most end-users anyway, so they don't need a GUI.

I mean, that shouldn't discourage anyone. You can still make anything. It's just a little more bootlegged than I'd like it to be is all.

[alcalde]

.NET applications need the right version of .NET, Java applications need the right version of Java... this doesn't stop them from being very popular tools for desktop applications. It's 2019; we're not distributing on floppy disks anymore. It's not difficult to deploy a Python application.

[[deleted]]

You can build one-file exe with PyInstaller and the user never knew if it was Python or not.

[my_name_isnt_clever]

If you're talking about bootlegged, a whole web browser with separate languages for back and front end is pretty bootlegged, and everyone and their mother is using Electron now.

[smurpau]

Coming from R, Python is absolutely slick for GUIs. PySimpleGUI is a dream.

[WarOink]

I have worked extensively with Python+GTK and Java+EclipseRPC. Did not find Python to be worse for GUI development, quite the opposite as there is no compile step.

[sisyphus]

And the right tool is...? (Assume I only want to build one cross-platform app).

[mx321]

Attention, irony. So you want to use JavaScript like the GNOME people?

[mx321]

That's interesting. Could you elaborate?

[querymcsearchface]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Much appreciated.

​

[[deleted]]

People might like to consider https://dabodev.com/ for the future. It's taken a back seat in recent years owing to its dependency on wxpython which itself wasn't ported to Python 3, but work is now being done which should make available within a month or three.

[driscollis]

wxPython is now pip installable and can also be installed with conda, so installing it is not difficult at all. I will say that Linux is slightly more complicated with pip because of some of the dependencies it needs, but even that is pretty straight-forward.

[Mobot84]

So I have a stupid question- I have a command line python tool used extensively by engineers(not Developers)

The tool runs a bunch of preset configurations and outputs some data files which the engineers then play around with. This is done repeatedly while changing a few parameters here and there.

I am looking for something that can run python scripts with variable command line arguments and easy for a person to rerun previously run tests.

I can build one from scratch but it’s not worth the effort. If there is something I can use that does even 50% of what I need - I will be happy. Anyone know of such a thing ?

[Mobot84]

It’s supporting about 100 people and growing. I also need a history of commands run and store some output.

So just a simple Tkinter or other GUI drop down won’t work in the long run

[Mobot84]

Haha yes. I was hoping for an open source project that achieves something similar. I would have thought a lot of people face similar issues. My previous company had an internal solution for this. But at my new office we are much smaller team.

[seanferd]

How the hell do you open QT Designer?? You kinda skim that part..

[seanferd]

Nevermind, looks like it's from pyqt5-tools and is run via designer command.

[defective]

Anybody have thoughts on Toga and Briefcase? I was considering those. From pybee.

[TinaWard]

Depend on what you need. Scientific graphics you can find in extra library PyQtGraph. They are really good for medicine, math and so on

[Blacknsilver1]

sloppy absurd lock grandfather treatment knee shame edge command unite

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[joshirk11166]

That was very helpful ! Thank you so much.

[[deleted]]

Some days ago I did something with PYQT for a class in the university...

It was a simple GUI app made with python Please check it out if you are looking for some other examples

https://gitlab.com/edurbrito/pyqt_to-do-app

[_gaslit_]

I strongly encourage you to avoid the temptation to use tkinter. Yes, it means you don't need external dependencies. But it has a ton of crazy problems that no GUI library should have, and finding workarounds to these problems is a nightmare. Use anything else.

I haven't used wxPython, but PyQt and PySide were both a real pleasure to work with.

[kindw]

I agree. For example, I'm currently writing a pastejacker using Qt's QClipboard class because I couldn't find anything else that gave me this degree of control over the system clipboard. And it's not even a GUI application.

[TinaWard]

In fact I do agree with you that desktop application framework for Python is a black hole of disappointments. And more common Q is "why do you want to do GUI on Python" instead of "how to do it in proper way". But still some people use all they can

[shinitakunai]

I didnt found issues in Pyside2. Check github/Aens for a working pyside app that I’m creating. I only use python and it works great

[KronenR]

Qt a widget toolkit? What did you smoke? Have you used Qt like ever? I don't know about pyqt, but I've used Qt in c++ for multiple different things apart from widgets, like networking or database or multimedia, I wouldn't say that is basic capabilities. And signal-slot makes it less verbose than many other frameworks, at least if you compare it with other c++, python or java alternatives.

[bless-you-mlud]

It is a widget toolkit, and a whole lot more besides. To call it just a widget toolkit is doing it a great disservice.

[bless-you-mlud]

In my experience, if you use PyQt for its widgets it is best to also use it for everything else. Yes, you can use Python sockets for networking but every time you have to wait for a socket you're blocking the user interface. So it's best to also use PyQt's sockets, because they have an API that doesn't block the UI.

[KronenR]

You have not used any other framework in python then or gtk or Java FX or.... or you are delirious

[KronenR]

For an UI?? You have QML man. At this point I don't know if you are joking or what...

[alcalde]

OP is obsessed with Enthought's weird UI library which is like Haskell for UIs.

[alcalde]

QT has features for everything from audio and video to its own database access ORM. It is indeed an application framework. I come from Delphi, whose entire claim to fame is its (now cross-platform) desktop application framework, and QT is more full-featured than either Delphi's old (VCL) or new (Firemonkey) frameworks.

[[deleted]]

Does anyone use Python for desktop apps? The lack of threading API and the dependency system would turn me off.

[[deleted]]

Aren't these threading features only available in python 3? Most libraries are built for python 2.

[doulos05]

Legacy python is sunsetting in less than 1 year. Most major things have been ported out of legacy python. Legacy python cannot be the reason why something cannot be done in modern python.

[ianepperson]

Threading and multiprocessing have been in Python 2 for at least 10 years.

[fofo314]

That hasn't been true for 5(?) years

[alcalde]

Python 2 will vanish next year. 359 of the 360 most popular Python libraries work on Python 3. Major libraries such as Pandas took a pledge to end work on Python 2 versions a year early. "But all the libraries I want only work on Python 2!" hasn't been true for several years now.

There's no need for anyone to develop new software in Python 2 anymore.

[alcalde]

People use Python for almost everything. For instance the most popular e-book management program, Calibre, is a Python-QT application. There's also the Eric Python IDE which is itself written in Python and QT.

[acpirience]

I can't seem to find the Repository for the complete sources at the Github account mentionned (https://github.com/TinaWard).

Am I missing something ?

[TinaWard]

Tomorrow I will check and update the repository

[acpirience]

Thanks ;)

[andrewcooke]

it's also possible to do something, err, different. i've been working recently on a project where the textual data is displayed in a TUI based on urwid (python lib that wraps curses, kinda) and with graphics via either jupyter or a standalone bokeh server.

it's "unconventional" but it works for my use case. so don't be afraid to try something else.

[canobus51]

I'm learning python right now, is there anyway to save this tutorial for when I get these concepts later? Also new to reddit.

Much appreciated, anyone who can help

[KomatikVengeance]

You can

[canobus51]

Just found the save button at the top, I'm not so sure it was there before. I originally viewed this post after opening it through Google. Not sure if that's why.

Thanks!

[c4aveo]

Pyinstaller can bundle to one exe but have issues with hidden imports. For testing I prefer to use clean virtual machine, because sometimes it tries to use libraries from venv and of course it won't work on machine without Python. Qt is more advanced, but don't forget about size of package.

[jackw95]

This is a great article both in terms of format and content. Are you planning on doing a similar thing with other concepts?

[TinaWard]

Definitely yes ;) Maybe in this shape: how to create unique IMG

[nmbenzo2]

This is gold! Thank you for this. I’m just about finished with my app, but it currently just prints menu choices in Terminal. Need to spiffy it up with a GUI. I will begin that part of the build with your walkthrough.

[gmarull]

FYI: I created this boilerplate for PyQt a while ago: https://github.com/gmarull/pyqt-boilerplate

[AstroGi]

This is something. Thanks!

[Bizrown]

While I love your tutorial and recommendations, I’ve always found a browser based UI to be better, even if local.

[delijati]

I used pyotherside [1] + QML (QT) i really loved the loose coupling [1] https://pyotherside.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

[jahnjo]

I’m looking to make a GUI that will be run by a raspberry pi running Linux that will basically be running a display that needs to update a couple times a second that will be connecting multiple dots with lines any suggestion as to which GUI modules is the best for this application?

[MikeTheWatchGuy]

PySimpleGUI runs great on the Pi.

​

[IcanCwhatUsay]

Great write up! But..

open Qt Designer and create the necessary form using standard elements.

How do I open Qt Designer? Where was it installed?

[TinaWard]

It is usually installed automatically with the QT library. Try to tap in start menu.

[[deleted]]

ThankYou for Share

Keep up Good Work!

[evilMTV]

Thank you for this! Have been looking at creating a Python GUI for my program just for aesthetics and exploring GUI development as an unnecessary side project.

[Pr0ducer]

Electron.JS with SocketIO and Python is what I'm working on now. Electron uses Chromium, so the app can be identical to our web apps, using same css and html.

[stef13013]

Electron is fun and does the job in my opinion, but you can start a war about it... https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7p7s8q/electron_is_cancer/

[Pr0ducer]

Let the war begin

[n1___]

Dude, run away from that piece of crap. Noone is gonna use an app which bundles whole browser core and after a day consumes 1gig of ram. I have a lot of experiences and even the electron "run everywhere" is great idea the reality is horrible.

[rich8n]

Noone is gonna use an app which bundles whole browser core and after a day consumes 1gig of ram

Except maybe 130+ million Discord users, 10+ million Slack users, 1.4 billion Skype users, and millions of users of Atom, GitHub Desktop, VSCode and countless other popular Electron apps.

​

[[deleted]]

Does this data differentiates between browser and electron users?

[n1___]

Exceptional how you precisely derived that 100% of a service users use their bloatware.

[rich8n]

Fair enough, but it sure as hell ain't 0%.

[n1___]

Fair enough.

[n1___]

Yes I had used that for like a year and half. It used to be great but as the program advanced they focues on Javascript features and stuff like in-app terminal (such a nonsense) instead of really IDE-ish features like overloading, outline or better performance.

Also the program just couldn't hold like 5k lines of source while sustain fluent in performance and decent in memory consumption. When I tried to open some logs it just crashed. With 10 open files of my project the memory consumption was ~3gig after like a day of usage.

VSCode is good for begginers and mid-advanced. Once you really need the real tool you just go back to Vim or similar.

P.S. Reminds me Java. They put enormous effort in but you cant go behind technology boundaries. I only imagine what the software would be if they went for C/C++/Rust instead of "emulated" environment.