Becoming a programmer is not just about learning programming languages; it takes more than a mastery of syntax rules to build applications that enable users to perform work, manage data, or enjoy a game. As programmers, we also need to be able to convert user requests and expectations into 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 not only teaches you how to use the Tkinter GUI toolkit and a few other libraries; it will also teach you many of the skills you need to move from a writer of short scripts to a writer of medium-sized 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.
This book is for beginners who have learned the basics of Python but haven't written much beyond simple scripts or REPL sessions. We'll walk you step-by-step through designing and creating a larger application, and we'll introduce you to skills that will help you advance as a programmer.
It's also aimed at those who have used Python for data science, web development, or system administration, but who now want to branch out into creating GUI applications. We'll go through the knowledge and skills required to create local GUI applications.
Finally, this book may also be useful for experienced Python programmers who just want to learn Tkinter, as most of the book details the finer points of using Tkinter classes.
Chapter 1, Introduction to Tkinter, introduces you to the basics of the Tkinter library and walks you through creating a Hello World application. It will also introduce you to IDLE as an example of a Tkinter application.
Chapter 2, Designing GUI Applications with Tkinter, goes through the process of turning a set of user requirements into a design that we can implement.
Chapter 3, Creating Basic Forms with Tkinter and ttk Widgets, shows you how to create a basic data entry form that appends data to a CSV file.
Chapter 4, Reducing User Error with Validation and Automation, demonstrates how to automatically populate and validate data in our form's inputs.
Chapter 5, Planning for the Expansion of Our Application, familiarizes you with how to break a small script into multiple files and build a Python module that you can import. It also contains some general advice on how to manage a larger code base.
Chapter 6, Creating Menus with Menu and Tkinter Dialogs, outlines the creation of a main menu using Tkinter. It will also show the use of several built-in dialog types to implement common menu functionality.
Chapter 7, Navigating Records with Treeview, details the construction of a records navigation system using the Tkinter Treeview and the conversion of our application from append-only to full read, write, and update capabilities.
Chapter 8, Improving the Look with Styles and Themes, informs you of how to change the colors, fonts, and widget styles of your application, and how to use them to make your application more usable.
Chapter 9, Maintaining Cross-Platform Compatibility, goes over Python and Tkinter techniques to keep your application running smoothly across Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
Chapter 10,Creating Automated Tests with unittest, discusses how to verify your code with automated unit tests and integration tests.
Chapter 11,Improving Data Storage with SQL, takes you through the conversion of our application from the CSV flat-files to SQL data storage. You'll learn all about SQL and relational data models as well.
Chapter 12,Connecting to the Cloud, covers how to work with cloud services such as web services and FTP to download and upload data.
Chapter 13,Asynchronous Programming with Thread and Queue, explains how to use asynchronous and multithreaded programming to keep our application responsive during long-running processes.
Chapter 14,Visualizing Data Using theCanvas Widget, teaches you how to work with the Tkinter Canvas widget to create visualizations and animations.
Chapter 15,Packaging with setuptools and cx_Freeze, explores preparing your Python application for distribution as a Python package or a standalone executable.
This book expects that you know the basics of Python 3. You should know how to write and run simple scripts using built-in types and functions, how to define your own functions and classes, and how to import modules from the standard library.
You can follow this book if you run Windows, macOS, Linux, or even BSD. Ensure that you have Python 3 and Tcl/Tk installed (Chapter 1, Introduction to Tkinter, contains instructions for Windows, macOS, and Linux) and that you have an editing environment with which you are comfortable (we suggest IDLE since it comes with Python and uses Tkinter). In the later chapters, you'll need access to the internet so that you can install Python packages and the PostgreSQL database.
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There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Determine the appropriate input widget for each data field."
A block of code is set as follows:
def has_five_or_less_chars(string):
return len(string) <= 5
wrapped_function = root.register(has_five_or_less_chars)
vcmd = (wrapped_function, '%P')
five_char_input = ttk.Entry(root, validate='key', validatecommand=vcmd)When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
[default]
exten => s,1,Dial(Zap/1|30)
exten => s,2,Voicemail(u100)
exten => s,102,Voicemail(b100)
exten => i,1,Voicemail(s0)Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
pip install --user psycopg2-binaryBold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Once installed, launch pgAdmin and create a new admin user for yourself by selecting Object | Create | Login/Group Role."
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