Book Image

Tkinter GUI Programming by Example

Book Image

Tkinter GUI Programming by Example

Overview of this book

Tkinter is a modular, cross-platform application development toolkit for Python. When developing GUI-rich applications, the most important choices are which programming language(s) and which GUI framework to use. Python and Tkinter prove to be a great combination. This book will get you familiar with Tkinter by having you create fun and interactive projects. These projects have varying degrees of complexity. We'll start with a simple project, where you'll learn the fundamentals of GUI programming and the basics of working with a Tkinter application. After getting the basics right, we'll move on to creating a project of slightly increased complexity, such as a highly customizable Python editor. In the next project, we'll crank up the complexity level to create an instant messaging app. Toward the end, we'll discuss various ways of packaging our applications so that they can be shared and installed on other machines without the user having to learn how to install and run Python programs.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Chapter 1. Meet Tkinter

Hello, and welcome to Tkinter GUI Programming by Example. In this book, we will be building three real-world desktop applications using Python and Tkinter. You will gain the knowledge to fully utilize Tkinter's vast array of widgets to create and lay out any application you choose.

So why use Tkinter? Tkinter comes bundled with Python most of the time, meaning there's no arduous installation process. It's also licensed under a free software license, meaning, unlike some other GUI frameworks, there's no complicated licensing model to battle against when you want to release your software to the outside world.

Tkinter is also very quick and easy to learn. Code can be written both procedurally or using object-oriented practices (which is the preferred style for anything non-experimental), and runs perfectly on any operating system supporting Python development, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

In this first chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Ensuring Tkinter is installed and available
  • Creating a main window in which to display your application
  • Laying out widgets inside the window via geometry managers
  • Creating widgets and displaying them inside your main window
  • Displaying static information via a label widget
  • Creating interactivity with the Button widget
  • Tying widgets to Python functions
  • Using Tkinter's special variables
  • Displaying pop-up messages easily
  • Getting information from the user