Paint the Tiger, Carve the Swan

I’m teaching Information Technology Studies to final year High School students this year, and one of the topics I am teaching is Application Programming. I’d prefer to stay away from Visual Basic if possible, and I’m re-investigating currently available GUI construction methods for python.

Back in the 90s, I was involved in the anygui project, which was a lofty plan to create a GUI equivalent to the anydbm interface that python uses for accessing the most easily available database backend. I’m not talking SQL or Access, but simpler database stores like bsddbm and the like.

This project never reached fruition, although we got lots of code sorted out.

One of the alternatives that I find really exciting seems to be an intellectual successor to this project: ClaroGraphics. This goes even further, having the plan to be a GUI library for C, C++, python, ruby, anything. I’m not sure that it will be feature complete by the time I get to it (second term), but it most certainly looks exciting.

It may be that I’m better of sticking with EasyGUI, which is a non-event driven GUI system, which basically allows for dialogs and interaction using a GUI, rather than having to use text. This could be a goer, I’ll have to check that out too.

An alternative might be to use Eclipse, with Jython. That allows for python syntax, but cross-platform GUI Java style. I think. More research needed.

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From the Synergy FAQ:

How do I stop my game from minimizing when I leave the screen?

Many full screen applications, particularly games, automatically minimize when they’re no longer the active (foreground) application on Microsoft Windows. The synergy server normally becomes the foreground when you switch to another screen in order to more reliably capture all user input causing those full screen applications to minimize. To prevent synergy from stealing the foreground just click “Options…” and check “Don’t take foreground window on Windows servers.” If you turn this on then be aware that synergy may not function correctly when certain programs, particularly the command prompt, are the foreground when you switch to other screens. Simply make a different program the foreground before switching to work around that.

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