Python GUI Programming Cookbook - Second Edition: Use recipes to develop responsive and powerful GUIs using Tkinter

Key Features

• Use object-oriented programming to develop amazing GUIs in Python
• Create a working GUI project as a central resource for developing your Python GUIs
• Easy-to-follow recipes to help you develop code using the latest released version of Python

Book Description

Python is a multi-domain, interpreted programming language. It is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. It is often used as a scripting language because of its forgiving syntax and compatibility with a wide variety of different eco-systems. Python GUI Programming Cookbook follows a task-based approach to help you create beautiful and very effective GUIs with the least amount of code necessary.

This book will guide you through the very basics of creating a fully functional GUI in Python with only a few lines of code. Each and every recipe adds more widgets to the GUIs we are creating. While the cookbook recipes all stand on their own, there is a common theme running through all of them. As our GUIs keep expanding, using more and more widgets, we start to talk to networks, databases, and graphical libraries that greatly enhance our GUI’s functionality. This book is what you need to expand your knowledge on the subject of GUIs, and make sure you’re not missing out in the long run.

What you will learn

• Create the GUI Form and add widgets
• Arrange the widgets using layout managers
• Use object-oriented programming to create GUIs
• Create Matplotlib charts
• Use threads and talking to networks
• Talk to a MySQL database via the GUI
• Perform unit-testing and internationalizing the GUI
• Extend the GUI with third-party graphical libraries
• Get to know the best practices to create GUIs

About the Author

Burkhard A. Meier has more than 17 years of professional experience working in the software industry as a software tester and developer, specializing in software test automation development, execution, and analysis. He has a very strong background in Python 3 software test automation development, as well as in SQL relational database administration, the development of stored procedures, and debugging code.

While experienced in Visual Studio .NET C#, Visual Test, TestComplete, and other testing languages (such as C/C++), the main focus of the author over the past five years has been developing test automation written in Python 3 to test the leading edge of FLIR ONE (now in its third generation) infrared cameras for iPhone and Android smart phones and handheld tablets, as well as assuring the quality of FLIR bolometer IR camera platforms.

Being highly appreciative of art, beauty, and programming, the author developed GUIs in C# and Python to streamline everyday test automation tasks, enabling these automated tests to run unattended for weeks, collecting very useful data to be analyzed and automatically plotted into graphs and e-mailed to upper management upon completion of nightly automated test runs.

His previous jobs include working as a senior test automation engineer and designer for InfoGenesis (now Agilysys), QAD, InTouch Health, and FLIR Systems.

Table of Contents

1. Creating the GUI Form and Adding Widgets
2. Layout management
3. Look and feel customization
4. Data and Classes
5. Matplotlib charts
6. Threads & Networking
7. Database handling
8. Testing & Internationalization
9. Enhancing the GUI with the wxPython library
10. Creating Amazing 2D GUIs with PyOpenGL and pyglet
11. Best Practices