Hello all,
I’m trying to get into GUI programming, but am hesitating on using a Python library to make my first barebones program. My goal is to code basic buttons and understand how operating systems implement the way they draw windows for applications.
I have coded mostly in scientific libraries or high-level languages that are fairly simple (Python, Matlab, Julia)… Also am familiar with basic concepts and syntax from C.
Looking for recommendations to start. I am happy to learn a new PL. Interested in writing code for legacy hardware and mobile. Bonus if the codes are general enough to be written for most displays one could interact with.
If you are interested into dipping your toes into rust land there is a library called Iced that I have used before. I at least like it better tham pyqt
I’m going to agree with a lot of the other posters and say QT with QT creator. It’s a tested and well though out implementation. It’s signals and slots event system is straight forward and easy to learn.
Whatever route you take learn Model View Controller (MVC). It gets in the mindset of keeping your data model seprate from things that use the data and things that change the data.
This might be of interest for you, and its free PDF. From 2019 but still actual.
An Introduction to C & GUI Programming – the new book from Raspberry Pi Press
I’ve worked with GUIs on python for a couple of years, we used PyQt, which is a python wrapper for Qt which is a C++ library for GUIs. It’s fairly straightforward and easy to get something up on the screen in no time.
However from parts of your comment it seems you want to implement your own graphics library, and that is a lot harder to do.
Also you mentioned legacy hardware, not sure how legacy it would be. Python should run on most things people would call legacy nowadays, but there’s definitely an overhead that could be felt if you’re trying to run this on an embebed system or a REALLY old (as in 90s/00s era) computer.
You also mentioned mobile, I don’t think PyQt can be compiled to mobile easily, nor do I think you should even if you manage to (been there, done that, not a happy time). Desktop and Mobile GUIs are very different, realistically if you want something that works well on both mobile and desktop with the same codebase the easiest approach is web UI.
Try egui.
+1 it was a tun of fun for me and rust is great
I don’t see much point in making GUI apps for desktop nowadays, especially since desktop usage is in decline compared to smartphones. If you still want to, I’d go with iced, which is in rust, and well designed.
I’d recommend learning either android jetpack-compose, or iOS app dev.
Bless you for doing god’s work. We need more GUI developers and a better ecosystem as a whole.
That said, it’s pretty shite right now. Your established options are GTK and Qt. Qt uses C++ and I believe GTK uses C. I’ve only really looked briefly into Qt development, and it looks like there are bindings to Rust.
That said, I’m a firm believer that doing GUIs through code is an inefficient, cumbersome, and antiquated process that should be replaced with more visual alternatives, like we see in Godot Engine.
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If you prefer non-kde apps, then consider Vala. It’s a young-ish language and it’s well suited for Gtk apps.
Unpopular opinion: Just make a web app.
Damn, an actually unpopular opinion
I don’t like a lot of python stuff, especially the gui related. flutter (dart) probably the easiest thing I’ve ever used and it works across tons of systems including mobile. Other than that the classic html/css/javascript lol.
Anything that needs big processing of course will suffer with these, I’ve never done that on a GUI though, the backends only.
I’ve been using Flutter, I like how it’s cross-platform, mostly. I’ve generally built things for Android, but the desktop (Linux and Windows) and web versions usually compile fine with no tweaking. Couldn’t speak to the iOS versions as I can’t be arsed to jump through Apple’s hoops. You can make a nice looking app with it for whichever platform you’re targeting.
It’s very well supported, lots of examples, well documented. Not as much out there as Python for examples and troubleshooting, but not bad.
web versions usually compile fine with no tweaking
Isn’t Flutter basically a webapp anyway?
Yah, and it has it’s limitations, but it’s far lighter than electron IME.
Flutter apps are good but from the UI perspective have their own limitations, you essentially rely on premade UI components and if they don’t support a method you need you’re stuck. And I’ve seen some flutters behave weird. I would build a prototype before committing to it.
Not directly programming or coding GUI from scratch with a library or something: Have you considered using a game engine like Godot ( https://godotengine.org/ ) ?
You would have a toolbox for several essential GUI-elements. You could visually create the GUI and add functionality by script. Also, there are several possibilities to handle different screen sizes and touch.
You would have to learn the UI and concepts of Godot but the documentation is ok and there are plenty of tutorials available.
I just know I’m gonna get raked, but try Lazarus. A Delphi clone using the FreePascal compiler. Has a framework similar to the VCL, but has pluggable backends. Qt, GTK, Windows, Cocoa, and a native one, though I’m not sure of its maturity. Component programming that is relatively easy to extend.
If you’re just trying to familiarize yourself with GUI programming in general, the fastest is going to be Gnome Builder or QT Creator (depending on which DE you’re working in). Both are great tools, and make it super easy to understand what goes into all the different pieces of making a GUI app.
If you want something more portable to mobile, maybe Ionic or Cordova would be interesting to you.
