Python Course

Tkinter Tutorial

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Python Training Courses in Toronto, Canada
On site trainings in Europe, Canada and the US.

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"Well, Apple invented the PC as we know it, and then it invented the graphical user interface as we know it eight years later (with the introduction of the Mac). But then, the company had a decade in which it took a nap."
(Steve Jobs)

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"GUI stuff is supposed to be hard. It builds character."
(Jim Ahlstrom)

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This topic in German / Deutsche Übersetzung: Einführung in Tkinter

Classroom Training Courses

This website contains a free and extensive online tutorial by Bernd Klein.
If you are interested in an instructor-led classroom training, you may have a look at the international Python courses by Bernd Klein.

If you are looking for classes in Germany, you can check the Python courses
by Bernd Klein at Bodenseo.

Tkinter in Czech

Jaroslav Kubias, the translator of Elkner-Downey-MeyersÂŽs "How to think like a computer scientist" into Czech, has translated our tutorial into the Czech language: Tkinter Pythonu

Python Tkinter

Introduction

We have often been asked: "Is there no Tk for Python?" or "Is Tkinter the same as Tk?" Of course, there is Tk for Python. Without Tk Python would be less attractive to many users. Tk is called Tkinter in Python, or to be precise, Tkinter is the Python interface for Tk. Tkinter is an acronym for "Tk interface".

Tk was developed as a GUI extension for the Tcl scripting language by John Ousterhout. The first release was in 1991. Tk proved as extremely successful in the 1990's, because it is easier to learn and to use than other toolkits. So it is no wonder that many programmers wanted to use Tk independently of Tcl. That's why bindings for lots of other programming languages have been developed, including Perl, Ada (called TASH), Python (called Tkinter), Ruby, and Common Lisp.

Tk provides the following widgets:

• button
• canvas
• checkbutton
• combobox
• entry
• frame
• label
• labelframe
• listbox
• menu
• menubutton
• message
• notebook
• tk_optionMenu
• panedwindow
• progressbar
• radiobutton
• scale
• scrollbar
• separator
• sizegrip
• spinbox
• text
• treeview

It provides the following top-level windows:

• tk_chooseColor - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a color.
• tk_chooseDirectory - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a directory.
• tk_dialog - creates a modal dialog and waits for a response.
• tk_getOpenFile - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a file to open.
• tk_getSaveFile - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a file to save.
• tk_messageBox - pops up a message window and waits for a user response.
• tk_popup - posts a popup menu.
• toplevel - creates and manipulates toplevel widgets.

Tk also provides three geometry managers:

• place - which positions widgets at absolute locations
• grid - which arranges widgets in a grid
• pack - which packs widgets into a cavity