Alan D. Moore - Python GUI Programming with Tkinter: Design and build functional and user-friendly GUI applications, 2nd Edition

Writing a book involves much more than the application of grammar and punctuation rules. In the same way, developing an application requires more than a knowledge of programming languages and library APIs. A mere mastery of syntax rules and function calls is not in itself sufficient for designing applications that empower users to perform work, safeguard valuable data, and produce flawless output. As programmers, we also need to be able to interpret user requests and expectations into effective interface designs and pick the best technologies to implement them. We need to be able to organize large code bases, test them, and maintain them in a way that keeps them manageable and free from careless errors.

This book aims to be much more than a reference manual for a particular GUI toolkit. As we walk through a fictitious workplace scenario, you will get a taste of what it's like to be an application programmer in a small office environment. In addition to learning Tkinter and a few other useful libraries, you will learn many of the skills you need to move from being a writer of short scripts to a writer of fully-featured graphical applications. By the time you've finished the book, you should feel confident that you can develop a simple but useful data-oriented application for a working environment.

This book is for beginners who have learned the basics of Python but haven't written much beyond simple scripts. We'll walk you step-by-step through designing and creating a larger application, and we'll introduce you to skills that will help you advance as a programmer.

It's also aimed at those who have used Python for data science, web development, or system administration, but who now want to branch out into creating GUI applications. We'll go through the knowledge and skills required to create local GUI applications.

Finally, this book may also be useful for experienced Python programmers who just want to learn Tkinter, as much of the book details the finer points of using the Tkinter library.

Chapter 1, Introduction to Tkinter, introduces you to the basics of the Tkinter library and walks you through creating a basic Tkinter application. It will also introduce you to IDLE as an example of a Tkinter application.

Chapter 2, Designing GUI Applications, goes through the process of turning a set of user requirements into a design that we can implement.

Chapter 3, Creating Basic Forms with Tkinter and Ttk Widgets, shows you how to create a basic data entry application that appends entered data to a CSV file.

Chapter 4, Organizing Our Code with Classes, will introduce you to general object-oriented programming techniques as well as Tkinter-specific uses for classes that will make our GUI programs more maintainable and understandable.

Chapter 5, Reducing User Error with Validation and Automation, demonstrates how to automatically populate and validate data in our form's inputs.

Chapter 6, Planning for the Expansion of Our Application, familiarizes you with how to break a single-file script intelligently into multiple files, how to build a Python module that you can import, and how to separate the concerns of a large codebase to make it more manageable.

Chapter 7, Creating Menus with Menu and Tkinter Dialogs, outlines the creation of a main menu using Tkinter. It will also show the use of several built-in dialog types to implement common menu functionality.

Chapter 8, Navigating Records with Treeview and Notebook, details the construction of a data record navigation system using the Ttk Treeview and Notebook, as well as the conversion of our application from append-only to full read, write, and update capabilities.

Chapter 9, Improving the Look with Styles and Themes, informs you of how to change the colors, fonts, and widget styles of your application, and how to use them to make your application more usable and attractive.