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Running Python as a GUI application

Python can also be run as a graphical user interface (GUI). There are several frameworks available, some of which are cross-platform and some others are platform-specific. In Chapter 12, GUIs and Scripts, we'll see an example of a GUI application created using Tkinter, which is an object-oriented layer that lives on top of Tk (Tkinter means Tk interface).

Tk is a GUI toolkit that takes desktop application development to a higher level than the conventional approach. It is the standard GUI for Tool Command Language ( Tcl), but also for many other dynamic languages, and it can produce rich native applications that run seamlessly under Windows, Linux, macOS X, and more.

Tkinter comes bundled with Python; therefore, it gives the programmer easy access to the GUI world, and for these reasons, I have chosen it to be the framework for the GUI examples that I'll present in this book.

Among the other GUI frameworks, we find that the following are the most widely used:

PyQt
wxPython
PyGTK

Describing them in detail is outside the scope of this book, but you can find all the information you need on the Python website (https://docs.python.org/3/faq/gui.html) in the What platform-independent GUI toolkits exist for Python? section. If GUIs are what you're looking for, remember to choose the one you want according to some principles. Make sure they:

Offer all the features you may need to develop your project
Run on all the platforms you may need to support
Rely on a community that is as wide and active as possible
Wrap graphic drivers/tools that you can easily install/access