Package: browsergui
What is this?-------------It's a GUI framework prioritizing portability, simplicity, and a Pythonic feel.If you want to build a simple GUI for a simple task, I recommend this package whole-heartedly. I don't think this is just pride in my own work -- I'm pretty sure that this package *actually is* very easy to learn, and very good for simple things.If you want to build a video game, or a nice, fluid 3D visualization, this is easily the worst GUI framework I have ever seen.- [Why is it good?](#why-is-it-good)- [Why is it bad?](#why-is-it-bad)- [What are the alternatives?](#what-are-the-alternatives)- [How do I install it?](#how-do-i-install-it)- [How do I learn to use it?](#how-do-i-learn-to-use-it)Why is it good?---------------This package prioritizes ease of use, portability, and good documentation above all else. The following statements will remain true as long as I have breath left in my body:- **It feels like Python.** It uses HTML/CSS/JS under the hood, but that fact is carefully hidden under nice object-oriented abstractions. Contrast with [Tkinter][tkinter], which feels like Tk, because it is.- **It has a shallow learning curve.** "Hello World" is `GUI(Text("Hello world!")).run()`. Minesweeper, including the game logic, is [less than 100 lines of code][minesweeper-code] and [looks like this][minesweeper-screenshot].- **It's super-portable.** `pip install browsergui && python -m browsergui.examples` has worked, with no snags, on every system I've tried (OS X, Debian, and Ubuntu, with both Python 2.7 and a few Python 3.Xs). Seriously, you could run that right now and it would work, without a single abstruse error messages about your Qt/wx/PyObjC installation. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I've never seen another GUI library so easy to install.- **It's well-documented.** There's a [wiki][wiki] to teach you how to use it. There are [examples](#how-do-I-learn-to-use-it). There's a [reference manual][docs]. There's a [runnable demo for every predefined kind of element][tour-screenshot]. I've spent more time documenting than I've spent writing actual code.Why is it bad?--------------- **It's slow.** It does not even try to be high-performance. There's an HTTP request every time the user interacts with the GUI, and again every time the view is updated. Performance is off the table. (It's not *frustratingly* slow -- you can drag a slider and see the value update with no perceptible delay -- but it's not good for fancy stuff.)- **It's not super-easy to make super-pretty things.** I just haven't prioritized styling: any styling you want to do, you have to do through CSS. I'm not sure `element.css['color'] = 'red'` is so much worse than `widget.config(foreground="#f00")`, but it *does* feel like a thin wrapper over CSS (because it is), which is gross.How do I install it?--------------------If you use pip, `pip install browsergui`.If you use easy_install, `easy_install browsergui`.If you don't like package managers, just unzip [this][download-zip] and put the `browsergui` folder anywhere on your Python path.Once it's installed, I recommend running `python -m browsergui.examples` to see a catalog of all the kinds of building blocks available to you, or checking out [the wiki][wiki] for tutorial-type stuff.How do I learn to use it?-------------------------[The wiki][wiki] has several tutorial-type pages. Or you could just extrapolate from these examples:- Hello world:from browsergui import GUI, TextGUI(Text("Hello world!")).run()- A number that increments every time you press a button:from browsergui import GUI, Text, Buttonbutton = Button('0')@button.def_callbackdef increment():button.text = str(int(button.text)+1)GUI(button).run()- A clock:import timeimport threadingfrom browsergui import Text, GUInow = Text("")def update_now_forever():while True:now.text = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")time.sleep(1)t = threading.Thread(target=update_now_forever)t.daemon = Truet.start()GUI(Text("The time is: "), now).run()(You can close/reopen the browser window at any time; Ctrl-C will stop the server.)Each kind of element (`Text`, `Button`, `ColorField`, `Grid`...) also has a simple example showing you how to use it: `python -m browsergui.examples` will display all those examples to you.What are the alternatives?--------------------------I am aware of some GUI toolkits for Python that fill a similar niche. You should consider using these instead:- [tkinter][tkinter] (standard library)Advantages: it's in the standard library. It has always worked out of the box for me. If you want maximal portability, this is probably your best bet.Disadvantages: it feels like a wrapper around Tk, because it is. This gives good performance and detailed control, but writing it feels unintuitive (to me).- [pyJS][pyjs], another Python package for making GUIs targeting browsers. It works by compiling your Python code into a slug of JavaScript which runs in the browser.Advantages: pyJS applications are much faster and much easier to deploy (since it doesn't require the user to run Python).Disadvantages: I had trouble installing it. And like `tkinter`, it's a wrapper, with the same dis/advantages.There are, of course, many other GUI toolkits. [Here][official-alternatives] is a list of those popular enough to earn the notice of Official Python People. [Here][unofficial-alternatives] is a paralytically long listing of less-notable ones.[minesweeper-code]: https://github.com/speezepearson/browsergui/blob/master/browsergui/examples/minesweeper.py[minesweeper-screenshot]: http://i.imgur.com/8Ax04sZ.png[tour-screenshot]: http://i.imgur.com/AvVVVFd.png[download-zip]: https://github.com/speezepearson/browsergui/archive/master.zip[wiki]: https://github.com/speezepearson/browsergui/wiki[docs]: http://pythonhosted.org/browsergui[download-zip]: https://github.com/speezepearson/browsergui/archive/master.zip[tkinter]: https://docs.python.org/3/library/tkinter.html#module-tkinter[pyjs]: http://pyjs.org[official-alternatives]: http://docs.python.org/2/library/othergui.html[unofficial-alternatives]: http://wiki.python.org/moin/GuiProgramming