Python Programming On Win32

Pros and Cons of Tkinter

Before we launch into Tkinter programming, a brief discussion of the pros and cons of Tkinter will help you decide if Tkinter may be the correct GUI toolkit for your application. The following are often given as advantages of Tkinter:

Brevity

Python programs using Tkinter can be very brief, partly because of the power of Python, but also due to Tk. In particular, reasonable default values are defined for many options used in creating a widget, and packing it (i.e., placing and displaying).

Cross platform

Tk provides widgets on Windows, Macs, and most Unix implementations with very little platform-specific dependence. Some newer GUI frameworks are achieving a degree of platform independence, but it will be some time before they match Tk’s in this respect.

Maturity

First released in 1990, the core is well developed and stable.

Extensibility

Many extensions of Tk exist, and more are being frequently distributed on the Web. Any extension is immediately accessible from Tkinter, if not through an extension to Tkinter, than at least through Tkinter’s access to the Tcl language.

To balance things, here’s a list of what’s often mention as weaknesses in Tkinter:

Speed

There is some concern with the speed of Tkinter. Most calls to Tkinter are formatted as a Tcl command (a string) and interpreted by Tcl from where the actual Tk calls are made. This theoretical slowdown caused by the successive execution of two interpreted languages is rarely seen in practice and most real-world ...