Python Cookbook

Learning Python, Second Edition

Foundations of Python Network Programming (Foundations)

Programming Python, Second Edition with CD

Text Processing in Python

Python

Python and Tkinter Programming

Format: Paperback
Author: John E Grayson
ReleaseDate: January, 2000
Publisher: Manning Publications
Rating:

Tkinter shortchanged
If you're not going to work in Pmw, most of this book is useless. 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.

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.

Lots of info, poorly presented!
He's already tackling a 'calculator' application by page 22. I find that the author is out of touch with how to present material. Quite a jump! He should have consulted with someone more experienced in material presentation for someone learning and/or trying to tie concepts together. By starting with basics in the early going, it would have made understanding a little easier in the more complex examples.

Not Enough about Tk

Not so. 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. 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.