Pure python gui library?

Question

Python has a lot of GUI libraries: tkinter, wxWidgets, pyGTK etc. But all these GUIs need to be installed and quite heavyweight, so it's a bit complex to deploy end-user GUI python apps that relay on mentioned GUI libraries.

Recently, I have thought about python's built-in ctypes module. Theoretically, it's possible to create a pure python GUI library that will use ctypes on windows ( windll.user32.CreateWindowEx, etc ), native pyObjC on MacOS and pyGTK / pyQt on gnome / kde. Does such a library exist? If not, what do you think is wrong with this idea?

Answer 1

starting in Python 2.7 and 3.1, Tk will look a lot better.

http://docs.python.org/dev/whatsnew/2.7.html#ttk-themed-widgets-for-tk

"Tcl/Tk 8.5 includes a set of themed widgets that re-implement basic Tk widgets but have a more customizable appearance and can therefore more closely resemble the native platform’s widgets. This widget set was originally called Tile, but was renamed to Ttk (for “themed Tk”) on being added to Tcl/Tck release 8.5."

Answer 2

The path of least effort and best results would be to learn what it takes to deploy an app using those existing GUI libraries.

Answer 3

Tkinter is part of the python standard distribution and is installed by default. Expect to find this on all python installs where there is a graphical display in the first place.

Answer 4

Notion of "pure python gui library" is wrong because ultimately you will be using system level calls and widgets, may be thru ctypes but that doesn't change the fact that if you start implementing your idea you will eventually become wxPython