Nictk is a wrapper for tkinter written by Nicola Cassetta with the aim of simplifying its use for building graphical interfaces with Python. Nictk was formerly Ntk, it has been renamed because the original name was too common and used in many different projects.
As is known, tkinter is the Python standard library already included in the language distribution; it derives from Tcl/Tk and maintains its nomenclature and conventions in names and parameters of the functions, so they are often difficult to remember. It also has three different geometry managers (pack, grid and place) for placing widgets, which can be confusing. One of the most popular features is its ability to easily resize widgets when the main window is resized, but this often leads to strange behavior. For example, the standard behavior of an Entry object (the text field widget) is to grow larger as we type text into it. If we packed other widgets to its right all of them will move. Another problem arises for widget dimensions, which are in pixel for some of them (for example Button, Canvas) and in charachters for other (Label, Entry).
These things can confuse people approaching the design of a GUI using tkinter. So I tried to simplify these problems by adopting some general principles:
- All widgets have a similar constructor, which enable the user to easily position them, with sizes always specified in pixels.
- As in tkinter, widgets can change their position and size when the main window is resized.
- Some tkinter options for widget config() method have been renamed in a more coherent manner, so it is easier to remember them. Also the almost infinite series of winfo_... methods have been packed into the unique get_winfo() method, with a string parameter.
- I renamed also some functions, trying to mantain the xxxx_yyyy scheme recommended in PEP 8 (this, however, is not complete)
Note: since version 2.2.0 I have introduced (as native classes) scrollable frames, i.e. frames to which you can add as many widgets as you want, with a scrollbar that appears automatically. This is a difficult feature to achieve in tkinter, and is still under development.
This is the link to the documentation.
This is an example of a "Hello world"
import Nictk as Ntk
from Nictk.constants import *
#callback for the button
def hide_show(event):
if labHello.visible():
labHello.hide()
btnShow.set_content("Show label")
else:
labHello.show()
btnShow.set_content("Hide label")
# Creates the main window (400x300 with left upper corner in (100, 100)
winMain = Ntk.Main(100, 100, 400, 300, title="First Sample")
# Creates a label in it (first argument of children widgets always is the parent,
# subsequent four its dimensions, then other widget specific)
labHello = Ntk.Label(winMain, CENTER, 60, "80%", 100, content="Hello world!")
# Changes label properties: background color, foreground color, font, centered text
labHello.config(bcolor="yellow", fcolor="dark blue", font=("Arial", 32), anchor=CENTER)
# Creates a button, assigning a callback to it
btnShow = Ntk.Button(winMain, CENTER, 200, 100, 40, content="Hide label", command=hide_show)
#enter the control loop
Ntk.mainloop()
