Create a directly-executable cross-platform GUI app using Python

Question

Python works on multiple platforms and can be used for desktop and web applications  thus I conclude that there is some way to compile it into an executable for Mac  Windows and Linux   The problem being I have no idea where to start or how to write a GUI with it  can anybody shed some light on this and point me in the right direction please

User · Accepted Answer

First you will need some GUI library with Python bindings and then (if you want) some program that will convert your python scripts into standalone executables.

Cross-platform GUI libraries with Python bindings (Windows, Linux, Mac)

Of course, there are many, but the most popular that I've seen in wild are:

Tkinter - based on Tk GUI toolkit (de-facto standard GUI library for python, free for commercial projects)
WxPython - based on WxWidgets (popular, free for commercial projects)
Qt using the PyQt bindings or Qt for Python. The former is not free for commercial projects. The latter is less mature, but can be used for free.

Complete list is at http://wiki.python.org/moin/GuiProgramming

Single executable (all platforms)

PyInstaller - the most active(Could also be used with PyQt)
fbs - if you chose Qt above

Single executable (Windows)

py2exe - used to be the most popular

Single executable (Linux)

Freeze - works the same way like py2exe but targets Linux platform

Single executable (Mac)

py2app - again, works like py2exe but targets Mac OS

User · Answer

I d use tkinter for python 3  import tkinter  tk   tkinter Tk   tk geometry  400x300 500 300   l   Label tk text     l pack   e   Entry tk  e pack    def click        e  text      You clicked the button   b   Button tk text  Click me  command click  b pack    tk mainloop      After this I would you py2exe   search for the use of this module on stakoverflow   otherwise I could edit this to let you know how to do it   py2exe  Then you should use py2exe  for example  to bring in one folder all the files needed to run the app  even if the user has not python on his pc  I am talking of windows    for the apple os there is no need of an executable file  I think  as it come with python in it without any need of installing it   Create this file  1  Create a setup py  with this code   from distutils core import setup import py2exe  setup console   l4h py      save it in a folder  2  Put your program in the same folder of setup py put in this folder the program you want to make it distribuitable  es  l4h py  ps  change the name of the file  from l4h to anything you want  that is an example   3  Run cmd from that folder  on the folder  right click   shift and choose start cmd here  4  write in cmd  python setup py py2exe 5  in the dist folder there are all the files you need 6  you can zip it and distribute it    Pyinstaller   Install it from cmd         pip install pyinstaller       Run it from the cmd from the folder where the file is         pyinstaller file py

User · Answer

An alternative tool to py2exe is bbfreeze which generates executables for windows and linux  It s newer than py2exe and handles eggs quite well  I ve found it magically works better without configuration for a wide variety of applications

User · Answer

Another system  not mentioned in the accepted answer yet  is PyInstaller  which worked for a PyQt project of mine when py2exe would not  I found it easier to use   http   www pyinstaller org   Pyinstaller is based on Gordon McMillan s Python Installer  Which is no longer available

User · Answer

Since python is installed on nearly every non-Windows OS by default now  the only thing you really need to make sure of is that all of the non-standard libraries you use are installed   Having said that  it is possible to build executables that include the python interpreter  and any libraries you use   This is likely to create a large executable  however   MacOS X even includes support in the Xcode IDE for creating full standalone GUI apps   These can be run by any user running OS X

User · Answer

KIVY       I was amazed seeing that no one mentioned Kivy     I have once done a project using Tkinter  although they do advocate that it has improved a lot  it still gives me a feel of windows 98  so I switched to Kivy   I have been following a tutorial series if it helps     Just to give an idea of how kivy looks  see this  The project I am working on      And I have been working on it for barely a week now   The benefits for Kivy you ask  Check this  The reason why I chose this is  its look and that it can be used in mobile as well

User · Answer

PySimpleGUI wraps tkinter and works on Python 3 and 2 7  It also runs on Qt  WxPython and in a web browser  using the same source code for all platforms     You can make custom GUIs that utilize all of the same widgets that you find in tkinter  sliders  checkboxes  radio buttons         The code tends to be very compact and readable      usr bin env python import sys if sys version info 0   gt   3      import PySimpleGUI as sg else      import PySimpleGUI27 as sg  layout      sg Text  My Window                  sg Button  OK      window   sg Window  My window   Layout layout  button  value   window Read       As explained in the PySimpleGUI Documentation  to build the  EXE file you run      pyinstaller -wF MyGUIProgram py

User · Answer

You don t need to compile python for Mac Windows Linux   It is an interpreted language  so you simply need to have the Python interpreter installed on the system of your choice  it is available for all three platforms    As for a GUI library that works cross platform  Python s Tk Tcl widget library works very well  and I believe is sufficiently cross platform   Tkinter is the python interface to Tk Tcl  From the python project webpage       Tkinter is not the only GuiProgramming   toolkit for Python   It is however the   most commonly used one  and almost the   only  one that is portable between   Unix  Mac and Windows

User · Answer

I m not sure that this is the best way to do it  but when I m deploying Ruby GUI apps  not Python  but has the same  problem  as far as  exe s are concerned  on Windows  I just write a short launcher in C  that calls on my main script  It compiles to an executable  and I then have an application executable

User · Answer

For the GUI itself   PyQT is pretty much the reference   Another way to develop a rapid user interface is to write a web app  have it run locally and display the app in the browser   Plus  if you go for the Tkinter option suggested by lubos hasko you may want to try portablepy to have your app run on Windows environment without Python

User · Answer

There s also PyGTK  which is basically a Python wrapper for the Gnome Toolkit   I ve found it easier to wrap my mind around than Tkinter  coming from pretty much no knowledge of GUI programming previously   It works pretty well and has some good tutorials   Unfortunately there isn t an installer for Python 2 6 for Windows yet  and may not be for a while

User · Answer

You can use appJar for basic GUI development   from appJar import gui  num 1  def myfcn btnName          global num     num   1     win setLabel  mylabel   num   win   gui  Test    win addButtons   Set      myfcn   win addLabel  mylabel    Press the Button    win go       See documentation at appJar site   Installation is made with pip install appjar from command line

[python] Create a directly-executable cross-platform GUI app using Python

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