Book Image

Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints - Second Edition

By : Bhaskar Chaudhary
Book Image

Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints - Second Edition

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, audio player, drawing application, piano tutor, chat application, screen saver, port scanner, and much 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, asyncio based programming 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.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

GUI programming – the big picture

As a GUI programmer, you will generally be responsible for deciding the following three aspects of your program:

  • Which components should appear on the screen?

This involves choosing the components that make the user interface. Typical components include things such as buttons, entry fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and scrollbars. In Tkinter, the components that you add to your GUI are called widgets. Widgets (short for window gadgets) are the graphical components that make up your application's frontend.

  • Where should the components go?

This includes deciding the position and the structural layout of various components. In Tkinter, this is referred to as geometry management.

  • How do components interact and behave?

This involves adding functionality to each component. Each component or widget does something. For example, a button, when clicked on, does something in response. A scrollbar handles scrolling, and checkboxes and radio buttons enable users to make some choices. In Tkinter, the functionality of various widgets is managed by command binding or event binding using callbacks.

The following diagram shows the three components of GUI programming: