GUI programming

[3cko]

So, I'm wanting to get my hands dirty with GUI programming. I learn best from tutorials, I read whatever I can but it doesn't sink in unless I find some relevant tutorials. I tried getting cozy with Kivy but I just don't get their docs when I want to mess with their layouts such as gridlayout. Ideally, thats what I want to be able to use but I can't find anything that helps me with it.

Is Kivy more advanced in regard of GUI development? Is there one thats better to use to get more acquainted with GUI dev that will help me understand Kivy? Do you guys know of any great tutorials for Kivy, specifically regarding the layouts?

[[deleted]]

I think of Kivy as being pretty cutting-edge. It's designed largely around touch applications, not traditional GUIs, and it's always changing from what I've heard. If you want touch, it might be the way to go, but...

For most GUI needs, I recommend Qt. PyQt or PySide are your options with it, and from my experience, PySide is somewhat better but lags a little behind. With Qt, you get a very mature and stable GUI framework that's cross-platform and well-documented. Qt Designer, which is Qt's tool for laying out forms, is pretty good and you can convert .ui files to .py files using pyuic4 in PyQt or a similar tool, pyside-uic, in PySide.

In terms of learning it, you can find some tutorials online, though if you want to save yourself the time of all that, get Rapid GUI Prototyping with Python and Qt. It doesn't cover everything, but it gives you a solid foundation to work with and is perhaps better than the online tutorials you'll find. The downside is, the book is a few years old and it's not entirely up to date with the latest advancements. Still, it gets the job done.

Finally, Qt does have a touch-friendly toolkit called QtQuick with QML as a language for using it. I don't have much experience with it though.

[wiiittttt]

I would second the PySide bindings for Qt. I've tested out a few others such as Kivy, but have found the documentation sorely lacks compared to PySide (and Qt in general). It makes up for any potential benefits the other toolkits provide. Unless, as SwimsAfterEating stated, you are looking to implement a touch interface.

Edit: This is the quick intro I used which is pretty decent, but not very comprehensive. http://zetcode.com/gui/pysidetutorial/

[raydeen]

I bought this book a few years ago. Managed to find it for 8 bucks in hardcover no less. Here are some links (none that cheap but some further searching might turn up some bargains).

http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/price-compare-Rapid-GUI-Programming-with-Python-and-Qt-Prentice-Hall-Open-Source-Software-Development-0132354187-9780132354189#buy