@Ryan, I am finally come up with wxPython and PyQt.

I will start with the one which would be faster to code and design GUI apps.

What would you say, which is more verbose, wxPython or PyQt and which is easier to build GUIs compared to the other.

I was just scrolling through the introduction of wxPython in Action by Manning Publications.

Here is what it says on page 19

Why choose wxPython?
The most powerful benefit of wxPython depends on your needs and expertise.
While we think that all user interface (UI) programmers would benefit from using
wxPython, the specific features that are most helpful will vary from case to case.

1.6.1 Python programmers
If you are already a Python programmer, you’ve probably noticed that Tkinter,
the interface toolkit distributed with Python, has some problems:

■ Tkinter is based on the Tk toolkit, which is somewhat out-of-date in terms
of the kinds of widgets it supports. By default, it doesn’t support more com-
plex widgets such as tree controls or tabbed windows. It also doesn’t have a
particularly rich set of predefined dialogs.

■ The Tk toolkit does not use native widget support, resulting in an applica-
tion that looks foreign on all platforms. In wxPython, dialogs and widgets
will look like those that are standard on the underlying operating system.
Your Tk user will find that buttons, fonts, and menus all look slightly differ-
ent from what might be expected.

■ Many programmers find Tkinter itself somewhat clunky to work with. In
particular, the process by which events are translated to actions in wxPy-
thon is more flexible and powerful.

You’ll find that wxPython solves these problems. The toolkit in wxPython is vastly
more complete and extensive than that of Tkinter and the native widget support
means your application will look at home in your operating system. Additionally,
the Python language support is more fluid in wxPython, making for a somewhat
nicer programming experience.

thanks for your help. I will get into python.

Thanks for the detailed reply

What I want to achieve is to communicate with my ecommerce website. For e.g.

Have a windows application which could be used to change settings, add products, delete products, update products, check orders, update order statuses etc.

Also, if a small application could be developed to communicate only the New orders, by displaying a small Ballon Window at the bottom of the taskbar whenever a new order is placed, how many orders are placed etc.

I hope you get the gist of what I want to achieve. Based on the above, what would be the best possible way to start ?

Which language should i pursue, i only know PHP right now. and the ecommerce site is in PHP. It gives an option to interact through XML.

Would all of the above be achievable by Python and wxPython or Tkinter ?

I apologize for posting so many questions, one after another. I really do appreciate any help you can provide or a path you can suggest i take.

I don’t think I’ve published any code along these lines, but one recent application I wrote for my own use downloads a page that contains constantly updated links, and displays them in a wxPython grid. Using the GUI, I can filter out links I’ve already seen, or topics that I’m not interested in. I can also aggregate several pages of links into a single grid, and sort the links in various ways. I suppose I could have done the same with an elaborate Greasemonkey script, but I think this is nicer.

I started by writing a script that downloads 100 pages of links (I only do this once a week, to avoid hammering the server). It then updates my pickled list of links, and saves it to a file.

I then wrote a GUI that calls the download, update, and pickle code, and displays the list of links in a grid. If I mark a link or topic as uninteresting, the list of links is updated, so I only see things I’m interested in. I’ve found some real gems that way.

Here are some really simple examples:

# get my blog's rss feed
import feedparser
feed = feedparser.parse("http://ginstrom.com/scribbles/feed/")
entries = [dict(title=e.title, link=e.link) for e in feed['entries']]

# get all the links on my home page
import urllib
from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup as bs
page = bs(urllib.urlopen("http://ginstrom.com/"))
links = [dict(link=l["href"], text=l.string) for l in page.findAll("a")]

Thanks for the encouragement

If you dont mind, do you have any examples of the work you have done in this regard.