Customer Reviews

Python and Tkinter Programming

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Python and TKinter programming" is the kind of book that is very hard to find in a bookstore nowadays. This book is not just a gap-filling, long-awaited tome, full of valuable information regarding a scarcely documented technology. It is a well-designed, carefully edited and clearly written book, too. Since the first pages, it becames clear that Grayson is an expert programmer and a talented technical writer. He does not only demonstrate a complete dominance of the Python and TKinter programming but he also shows an attention for the reader that is rare to see in this world. The whole book, and every single part of it, are carefully designed and written to help the programmer in the learning process and in the everyday work. Also Manning, the publisher, made a very good work with this book, (as with all the book of this series).

Consider to buy this book because:

- It is an exhaustive guide to Python and TKinter programming. No "shadow zones" left.

- It contains 14Mb of working and well written code (available online). You can play and learn from it.

- It is well-organized, carefully edited and clearly written. No struggles to get the info you need.

- It is a first-hand report from the world of real professional programming. No kid tales.

- You get a real understanding of Python and TKinter programming from this book, not a simple, dry description of this language.

The best characteristic of this book is its clear and flexible structure: you are not forced to follow the "flow-of-consciousness" of the author, chapter after chapter (Have you ever read "Programming Python", by Mark Lutz? ). You can easily spot and read the part that most interest you. All of the chapters focus on well-defined aspects of the Python/TKinter programming and are quite indipendent from the other ones. Grayson's writing is always clear and well-organized. You do not have to struggle for extracting the information you need. This is a book designed with a demanding and busy reader in mind.

I hope to see more from Grayson and Manning in the future.

Tkinter gets a too-brief treatment in Grayson's rush to get on to the subject of Pmw, the Python megawidget library, which seems to be the real subject of the book. If you're not going to work in Pmw, most of this book is useless.

The basics of Tk are poorly presented, apparently on the assumption that the reader is already familiar with Tk. The first appendix is devoted to the mapping between Tk and Tkinter, a typical "nugget" being the revelation that the Tk construct "-label string" maps onto the Tkinter construct "label=string", which conveys no useful information in the absence of a complete Tk reference.

Appendix B, a Tkinter reference, has often left me frustrated. It begins with the understandable space-saving device of a list of "Options shared by most widgets," but then continues with "Options shared by many widgets" (why separate?) and "Common widget methods," whose connection with the rest of the appendix is obscure. Studying a widget's entry in Appendix B seldom produces a confident grasp of how to use that widget.

The book is mostly tutorial in form, suited for leisurely reading but frustrating as a reference.

I have added Mr. Grayson's book "Python and Tkinter Programming" to my trusted and tested reference library. He has done an excellent job of consolidating the available information for the first time. Importantly, he has included many, many observations and Tkinter code examples from his vast professional experience.

The numerous Tkinter examples are both excellent code reference and fully explained in the accompanying text. Although I consider myself a relatively new Tkinter programmer, these examples have helped me immeasurably. Thank you very much Mr. Grayson!

True to the Python tradition, Mr. Grayson incorporates comedy into his text and code. I both admire and find a certain welcomed familiarity to this unusual approach to a very technical and at times difficult subject.

Perhaps the only fault I can manage is that the book and examples are not at the beginner level. Although I believe that anyone new to Tkinter will benefit, the task will be just a little harder; I know because I am such a person. Still, to Mr. Grayson's credit, he offers help to those buying the book through a on-line forum. Use of his forum is free and easy; their are no strings attached. His response is timely and right-on.

Before I even reviewing this title, I have to come out and admit that this book sits on my desk at work. I keep it within an arms reach whenever working on Python GUIs.

First, I felt that this was a pretty good book as far as the instruction of Tkinter goes. It assumes you have at least a basic understanding of Python, so you may want to learn the language before diving into it. There are three aspects of the book that I think deserve special attention: the examples, special topics covered, an how the book is broken up.

It has no shortage of examples for each of the various widgets, and provides well commented code. The one complaint I have here is that the descriptive comments are all at the end of the code, so I frequently found myself flipping back and forth between the code and the comments.

It also priovides several examples of common situations you may run across: dynamically changing widgets, "smart" widgets, and issues regarding GUI overhead.

The first part of the book concentrates on looking under the hood of Tkinter and learning how to interact with its components and get applications running. The second part of the book spends is more of a textbook on the design of more effective/attractive interfaces.

Secondly, the book is also an above-average reference manual. It has two colored sections that outline all of the widgets in standard Tkinter and Pmw (Python Mega-widgets). I find this especially usefull because once you learn the basics of the Tkinter system, you really only need a manual that reminds you of how to get the right widget you want. I think in the course of using the reference manual I've only found two errors, which is pretty good for around 175 pages of material.

John Grayson has filled a great void in the Python community with this book. The online Tkinter docs are good start, but if you need hints, tips, real code examples that you can download (and there is a ton of it), this is the book. There is a lot of code in this book, and John explains the code section by section in the examples. There are quite a few good Python segments such as optimizing Python, writing extensions, and debugging, but mostly it is as the title states, Python AND Tkinter. I enjoyed seeing John emphasize the importance of well written Python code, and how to do this. Great book.

If you want to understand how Tkinter, Pmw and Blt work this is the best bibliography I could find. It is very well structured, so it easy for everyone read it. It has a lot of examples that you can apply to real problems with very little work. The appendices at the end are the best when you need information about any module, options and how to configure them. If you don't know Python you should try "Learning Python" from Mark Lutz first, it is a very good bibliography as a starting point, "Python and Tkinter Programming" has a small introduction about the basics of Python, but it is assumed that you know Python.

I have programmed several commercial Macintosh and Windows applications and I have become fairly proficient with Python, so I figured that writing GUIs with Tkinter would be pretty straightforward and Grayson's book looked like a great place to start.

Not so. While it's fine to have lots of code samples, what would have been even better was much more nitty-gritty discussion of Tk itself. Tk is very clever and powerful, but it is not straightforward. This is even more true of Megawidgets, upon which Pmw is based, and which is widely used in Grayson's examples.

The appendices at the end are great if you know exactly what you are looking up but frustrating if you don't have a good overview of how Tk works. I recommend Effective Tcl/Tk Programming by Harrison and McLennan to fill in some of the many gaps in Grayson.

I am new to the python programming langauge and was a little frustrated with the lack of documentation on Tkinter. Thank goodness Mr. Grayson has come out with a book that not only clearly documents Tkinter but the book is also filled with clear and concise examples from which to learn! The information on PMW (Python Mega Widgets) is also fantastic. I highly recommend this book.

John has done an excellent job of providing an outstanding Python programming resource. Unlike many programming books, he provides numerous complete programs. Not only that, but he explains how the program does what it does, and why he made the choices he did while writing the code. To learn programming, one must have good examples. This book provides clearly explained examples from which you can learn a great deal.

It is a great book for doing the most simple of
GUI tasks and for a reference once you have been using
Tkinter for an extended period of time. The book leaves out
key definitions when they are most needed, isn't organized
well and generally falls short when you really start getting
interested. Don't get this book if you are trying translate
other GUI skills to Tkinter. It is good for learning the
absolute basics and as a reference.