Preface

Writing a book involves much more than the application of grammar and punctuation rules. In the same way, developing an application requires more than a knowledge of programming languages and library APIs. A mere mastery of syntax rules and function calls is not in itself sufficient for designing applications that empower users to perform work, safeguard valuable data, and produce flawless output. As programmers, we also need to be able to interpret user requests and expectations into effective interface designs and pick the best technologies to implement them. We need to be able to organize large code bases, test them, and maintain them in a way that keeps them manageable and free from careless errors.

This book aims to be much more than a reference manual for a particular GUI toolkit. As we walk through a fictitious workplace scenario, you will get a taste of what it's like to be an application programmer in a small office environment. In addition to learning Tkinter and a few other useful libraries, you will learn many of the skills you need to move from being a writer of short scripts to a writer of fully-featured graphical applications. By the time you've finished the book, you should feel confident that you can develop a simple but useful data-oriented application for a working environment.