Tkinter GUI Application Development Hotshot is a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the process of developing real-world graphical applications using Python and Tkinter; the built-in GUI module of Python.
This book attempts to highlight features and capabilities of Tkinter, while demonstrating a few of the myriad ways you can use Tkinter to develop exciting, fun, and useful pieces of GUI applications with Tkinter and Python.
We hope to take you on a fun journey through more than 10 projects from different problem domains. As we develop new applications in each project, the book also builds up a catalogue of some commonly used strategies for developing real-world applications.
Project 1, Meet Tkinter, begins from scratch, providing an overview of Tkinter covering details on how to create root windows, how to add widgets to a root window, how to handle layout with geometry managers, and how to work with events.
Project 2, Make a Text Editor like Notepad, develops a text editor in procedural style of programming. It gives the reader their first taste of several features of Tkinter and what it is like to develop a real application.
Project 3, Programmable Drum Machine, uses object-oriented programming to develop a drum machine capable of playing user composed rhythms. The application can also save those compositions and later edit or replay them. Here, you also learn to write multithreaded GUI applications.
Project 4, Game of Chess, develops a game of chess, introducing key aspects of structuring a GUI application as a model-view program. It also teaches the art of taking a real-world object (chess), and modeling it in notations that your program can manipulate. It also introduces the reader to the power of Tkinter Canvas widget.
Project 5, Audio Player, takes up the task of building an audio player. This project introduces the concepts of working with external libraries while showing you how to work with many different Tkinter widgets.
Project 6, Drawing an Application, develops a drawing and graphic editor. This project also shows how to develop and work with a GUI framework, thereby creating reusable code for all of your future programs.
Project 7, Some Fun Project Ideas, works through a series of small but functional projects, demonstrating problems from different domains such as network programming, database programming, graphing, basic animation, and multithreaded programming.
Appendix A, Miscellaneous Tips, discusses some vital aspects of GUI programming not covered in previous projects, but form a common theme in many GUI programs.
Appendix B, Quick Reference Sheets, lists down a handy reference sheet of all Tkinter and ttk options and methods along with a brief description on their input, usage, and output.