Book Image

Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints

By : Bhaskar Chaudhary
Book Image

Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints

By: Bhaskar Chaudhary

Overview of this book

Tkinter is the built-in GUI package that comes with standard Python distributions. It is a cross-platform package, which means you build once and deploy everywhere. It is simple to use and intuitive in nature, making it suitable for programmers and non-programmers alike. This book will help you master the art of GUI programming. It delivers the bigger picture of GUI programming by building real-world, productive, and fun applications such as a text editor, drum machine, game of chess, media player, drawing application, chat application, screen saver, port scanner, and many more. In every project, you will build on the skills acquired in the previous project and gain more expertise. You will learn to write multithreaded programs, network programs, database driven programs and more. You will also get to know the modern best practices involved in writing GUI apps. With its rich source of sample code, you can build upon the knowledge gained with this book and use it in your own projects in the discipline of your choice.

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Small book image
Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints
Bhaskar Chaudhary
Nov, 2015 | 340 pages
Small book image
Business Intelligence Career Master Plan
Danny Moncada | Eduardo Chavez
Aug, 2023 | 284 pages
Small book image
Mastering NLP from Foundations to LLMs
Meysam Ghaffari | Lior Gazit
Apr, 2024 | 340 pages
Small book image
Principles of Data Science
Sinan Ozdemir
Jan, 2024 | 326 pages
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints
Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Meet Tkinter
Meet Tkinter
Objectives of this chapter
Installing Python and Tkinter
Importing Tkinter
GUI programming – the big picture
The root window – your drawing board
Widgets – the building blocks of GUI programs
The Tkinter geometry manager
Events and callbacks – adding life to programs
Handling widget-specific variables
Event unbinding and virtual events
Doing it in style
Some common root window options
Summary
2
Making a Text Editor
Making a Text Editor
Objectives of the chapter
An overview of the chapter
Setting up the editor skeleton
Adding a menu and menu items
Implementing the View menu
Adding a built-in functionality
Indexing and tagging
Implementing the Select All feature
Implementing the Find Text feature
Types of Toplevel windows
Working with forms and dialogs
Working with message boxes
The icons toolbar and View menu functions
Displaying the line number
Adding the cursor information bar
Adding themes
Creating the context/pop-up menu
Summary
3
Programmable Drum Machine
Programmable Drum Machine
An overview of the chapter
Module requirements for the chapter
Setting up the GUI in OOP
Finalizing the data structure
Creating broader visual elements
Loading drum samples
Playing the drum machine
Tkinter and threading
Support for multiple beat patterns
Saving beat patterns
Working with ttk-themed widgets
Summary
4
A Game of Chess
A Game of Chess
An overview of the chapter
Structuring our program
Modeling the data structures
Creating a Piece class
Making the game functional
Managing user preferences
Summary
5
Building an Audio Player
Building an Audio Player
An overview of the chapter
External library requirements
Program structure and broadview skeleton
Deciding the data structure
Creating the Player class
Adding and removing items from a playlist
Playing audio and adding audio controls
Creating a seek bar
One-time updates during audio playback
Managing continuous updates
Looping over tracks
Adding a tooltip
Summary
6
Paint Application
Paint Application
Creating a tiny framework
Setting up a broad GUI structure
Dealing with mouse events
Adding toolbar buttons
Drawing items on the canvas
Adding a color palette
Adding top bar options for draw methods
Drawing irregular lines and super shapes
Adding functionality to the remaining buttons
Adding functionality to menu items
Summary
7
Multiple Fun Projects
Multiple Fun Projects
Chapter objectives
Building a screen saver
Building a Snake game
Creating a Weather Reporter
Creating a phone book application
Graphing with Tkinter
3D graphics with Tkinter
Summary
8
Miscellaneous Tips
Miscellaneous Tips
Chapter objectives
Tracing Tkinter variables
Widget traversal
Validating user input
Formatting widget data
More on fonts
Redirecting the command-line output to Tkinter
The class hierarchy of Tkinter
Tips for program design
Tips for program optimization
Distributing a Tkinter application
The limitations of Tkinter
Tkinter in Python 2.x
Summary
Index
Index

Some common root window options

Now that we are done discussing styling options, let's wrap up with a discussion on some commonly used options for the root window:

Method

Description

*root.geometry('142x280+150+200')

You can specify the size and location of a root window by using a string of the widthxheight + xoffset + yoffset form.

** self.root.wm_iconbitmap('mynewicon.ico')

or

self.root.iconbitmap('mynewicon.ico ')

This changes the title bar icon to something that is different from the default Tk icon.

root.overrideredirect(1)

This removes the root border frame. It hides the frame that contains the minimize, maximize, and close buttons.

Let's explain these styling options in more detail:

  • root.geometry('142x280+150+200'): Specifying the geometry of the root window limits the launch size of the root window. If the widgets do not fit in the specified size, the widgets get clipped from the window. It is often better not to specify this and let Tkinter decide this for you.

  • self.root.wm_iconbitmap('my_icon.ico') or self.root.iconbitmap('my_icon.ico '): This option is only applicable to Windows. Unix-based operating systems do not display the title bar icon.

Getting interactive help

This section is true not only for Tkinter, but also for a Python object for which you may need help.

Let's say that you need a reference to the Tkinter pack geometry manager. You can get interactive help in your Python interactive shell by using the help command, as shown in the following command lines:

>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Pack)

This provides a detailed help documentation of all the methods defined under the Pack class in Tkinter.

You can similarly receive help for all the other individual widgets. For instance, you can check the comprehensive and authoritative help documentation for the Label widget in the interactive shell by typing the following command:

>>>help(tkinter.Label)

This provides a list of the following:

  • All the methods defined in the Label class

  • All the standard and widget-specific options for the Label widget

  • All the methods inherited from other classes

Finally, when in doubt regarding a method, look into the source code of Tkinter, which is located at <location-of-python-installation>\lib\ directory. For instance, the Tkinter source code is located in the /usr/lib/python3.4/tkinter directory on my Ubuntu 14.04 operating system.

Tip

You might also find it useful to look at the source code implementation of various other modules, such as the color chooser, file dialogs, ttk module, and the other modules located in the aforementioned directory.

You can also find an excellent documentation of Tkinter at http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/tkinter/web/index.html.

Previous Section
End of Section 13
Next Section