Tkinter and OS X 10.3?

[Aahz]

Anyone used Tkinter on 10.3 yet?

 

[Ron Stephens]

Anyone used Tkinter on 10.3 yet?

I have been using Tkinter on Mac OS X 10.3 and it works fine. I havev
not really stressed it however, just running IDLE, and some other
programs that use Tkinter GUI's. No heavy lifting, I'm afraid. Still,
come on in, the water feels fine ;-)))

 

[Aahz]

I have been using Tkinter on Mac OS X 10.3 and it works fine. I havev
not really stressed it however, just running IDLE, and some other
programs that use Tkinter GUI's. No heavy lifting, I'm afraid. Still,
come on in, the water feels fine ;-)))

Thanks! That's all I wanted to know.

 

[Russell E. Owen]

Anyone used Tkinter on 10.3 yet?

With X11 or with Aqua?

There are some nasty issues with Aqua:
- Python 2.3 (the aqua version that comes with Panther) has a bug that
prevents some standard Tkinter file dialogs from working. IDLE and a big
Tkinter app I am writing both make some use these broken dialogs.
- (Catch 22) You cannot easily upgrade MacPython on Panther. Simply
installing a later version (in /Library/Frameworks) causes nasty
problems when you try to install packages (an issue that has gotten a
lot of discussion on the Mac mailing list will apparently be resolved in
Python 2.4). You could delete /System/Library/Frameworks/Python, but
this is claimed to be a Very Dangerous Thing To Do by some folks in the
know. I still haven't gotten an explanation of why this is so bad and I
confess I'm still tempted to just do it and to hell with it, but I'm
going to wait in hopes of hearing more first. Python with Tkinter is one
of my main uses for this Mac, so the problem is a big one for me.
- Also, Aqua Tk still has a lot of cosmetic bugs. Menus and checkbuttons
show truncated or wrapped text for most choices of fonts. Some buttons
don't get displayed at first (but are present and can be pressed). Stuff
like that. There are a lot of bug reports on source forge, but there
have been several minor releases of tcl/tk with no progress in that area
(I don't mean to sound whiney; I realize full well it's folks like you
or I that have to volunteer to fix bugs for open source; I do actually
put in some work on Tkinter but haven't dared brave the guts of tk).

I imagine X11 Tkinter works fine, though I confess I've only just
finished building it and haven't actually run my app yet. Still, I can't
imagine why it wouldn't unless Apple did something dreadful to X11.

-- Russell

 

[Ron Stephens]

I'm sorry to hear about those problems, Russell. I am using Tkinter on
Aqua, and I guess now that I think about it, I've noticed a few
non-perfect looking dialogs or widgets, but they didnt really bother
me.

I'm still using the Ptyhon 2.3 that came installed on Panther, I
believe, and I hadn't hear about the diffiulties upgrading to a new
Python version; it almost makes me want to try it to find out what
troubels lurk. Maybe I will and report back...

 

[Russell E. Owen]

I'm sorry to hear about those problems, Russell. I am using Tkinter on
Aqua, and I guess now that I think about it, I've noticed a few
non-perfect looking dialogs or widgets, but they didnt really bother
me.

I'm still using the Ptyhon 2.3 that came installed on Panther, I
believe, and I hadn't hear about the diffiulties upgrading to a new
Python version; it almost makes me want to try it to find out what
troubels lurk. Maybe I will and report back...

Well, I'm not sure how serious the problem actually is. I may have
overstated it. Hoping to hear soon.

In any case, the file dialog problem somehow went away when I went to
Panther, so I only see those cosmetic problems I mentioned (some of
which are helped by careful choice of fonts). I'm not sure what's up
with the file dialog, but I'm not about to complain.

One minor warning when building Python for X11: python *may* pick up the
framework tcl/tk in /Library/Frameworks instead of the X11 version in
/usr/local. The symptom I had was Tkinter running in aqua (and not
coming to the front) and I'm not entirely sure it was a bad build (it
may have simply been tcsh caching info). I am sure I finally got x11
python to build correctly after I trashed my /Library/Frameworks tcl and
tk (restoring them after the build).

Summary: both aqua and X11 versions of Python are working well for me.

Panther's X11 is significantly nicer, too. A problem I had with windows
that were too tall is gone, and one can quit without getting a
confirmation dialog box!

-- Russell

 

[Ron Stephens]

Well, I'm not sure how serious the problem actually is. I may have
overstated it. Hoping to hear soon. ... ...
Summary: both aqua and X11 versions of Python are working well for me.

-- Russell

Well, to summarize my experience, I have never had a Python problem on
Mac OS X that wasn't related to a GUI in one way or another; and I
have less of those issues on Panther (10.3) than on previous versions;
and none of the issues was ever serious enough to make me regret for a
moment using Mac OS X. Having the Unix command line shell available
along with the nice Aqua user interface is really a treat, and most of
my Python use is for command line stuff anyway. Now that I have both
wxPython and Tkinter working acceptabley on Panther, I am happy
indeed. ;-)))

Ron Stephens

 

[Brian Parkinson]

I have tried to get Tkinter working on my Mac (OS X 10.3). I installed
MacPython 2.3 and the TclTkAquaBI-8.4.2.0.dmg.

When I type:

import Tkinter
r = Tkinter.Tk()

I get a window all right, but clicking on the window causes the
following error:

SetFrontProcess failed,-606

the window can't properly get focus.

Had same problem when I tried the example Tk application that comes
with nltk (Natural Language Toolkit).

Any ideas?

 

[Aahz]

I have tried to get Tkinter working on my Mac (OS X 10.3). I installed
MacPython 2.3 and the TclTkAquaBI-8.4.2.0.dmg.

When I type:

import Tkinter
r = Tkinter.Tk()

I get a window all right, but clicking on the window causes the
following error:

SetFrontProcess failed,-606

I've got OS X 10.3.2, MacPython 2.3, and TclTkAqua-8.4.4.dmg; it's
working okay for me. (My threaded Tkinter app works better than the
non-threaded version. ;-)

 

[Aahz]

I have tried to get Tkinter working on my Mac (OS X 10.3). I installed
MacPython 2.3 and the TclTkAquaBI-8.4.2.0.dmg.

When I type:

import Tkinter
r = Tkinter.Tk()

I get a window all right, but clicking on the window causes the
following error:

SetFrontProcess failed,-606

the window can't properly get focus.

BTW, did you remember to use ``pythonw`` instead of ``python``?

 

[Russell E. Owen]

I have tried to get Tkinter working on my Mac (OS X 10.3). I installed
MacPython 2.3 and the TclTkAquaBI-8.4.2.0.dmg.

When I type:

import Tkinter
r = Tkinter.Tk()

I get a window all right, but clicking on the window causes the
following error:

SetFrontProcess failed,-606

the window can't properly get focus.

Had same problem when I tried the example Tk application that comes
with nltk (Natural Language Toolkit).

Any ideas?

You are almost certainly typing python instead of pythonw at the
terminal prompt. This results in exactly the error described. (I'm not
sure why there are two commands instead of python doing whatever extra
magic pythonw does.)

-- Russell

 

[Aahz]

You are almost certainly typing python instead of pythonw at the
terminal prompt. This results in exactly the error described. (I'm not
sure why there are two commands instead of python doing whatever extra
magic pythonw does.)

I'd guess that pythonw imports more stuff; if you want to run a non-GUI
application (say in a cron job), that would be wasteful.

 

[Michael Hudson]

I'd guess that pythonw imports more stuff; if you want to run a non-GUI
application (say in a cron job), that would be wasteful.

pythonw connects to the window server. If there is no window server
(logged in in text mode or via ssh) this could be considered a
disadvantage. I don't know if it's possible to try to connect and do
something sensible if it fails, but given the separatedness of python
& pythonw, I'd guess not.

Cheers,
mwh