Hosguibase - A multi-backend GUI toolkit

Hosguibase a toolkit for making graphical user interfaces using Python Hosguibase uses other toolkits as its backends, which allow programs to look native on many platforms. Some backends may have qualities that make them better suited for certain tasks.

Hosguibase does not aim to expose all or even many functionalities of its backends. On the contrary, we look for a minimal feature set that can be used to create acceptable applications. This minimalism is to ease the workload needed to maintain multiple backends. You can use the features of a backend directly but this will likely lock you down to that specific backend (which may not be bad at all).

Hosguibase is developed by DEV Joni since 2023. Currently, the project is in an early stage not recommended for production.

Installing

pip install devjoni-hosguibase

API Overview

Widgets

• MainWindow - The main window
• FrameWidget - Containment and partitioning
• TextWidget - Non-editable text (label)
• ButtonWidget - Clickable -> command
• SliderWidget - Slidable (scale)
• EntryWidget - Single-line editable text
• EditorWidget - Multiline editable text
• DropdownWidget - Selection (optionmenu)
• ImageWidget - Shows an image

The API resembles tkinter. When creating a new widget, you specify its parent and then make the widget appear on the screen by using the grid method.

A hello world example

import devjoni.guibase as gb

app = gb.MainWindow()
app.title = "My graphical program"
app.geometry = "small"

hello = gb.TextWidget(app)
hello.grid(row=0, column=0)

hello.set(text='Hello world!')

app.run()

Supported Backends

Default backend: tkinter

• tkinter : The GUI toolkit based on tcl/tk that comes with Python
• gtk3/4 (via gi): A toolkit used for example by GNOME
• p3d : Panda3D - The open-source 3D rendering engine

The backend is currently selected with flags to the program.

Tkinter backend (default)

Launching

python myprogram.py --tk

GTK backends

Requirements

pip install PyGObject

Launching version 3

python myprogram.py --gtk3

or version 4

python myprogram.py --gtk4

Panda3D backend

Requirements

pip install Panda3D

Launching

python myprogram.py --p3d

Current Limitations

• Only grid layout engine supported (no free placement of widgets)
• Playing videos or 3D graphics not straighforward
• No dedicated touch or joystick support

Contributing

Reporting Issues

Please feel free to report any bugs or issues in our bug tracker in Github:

https://github.com/devjonix/hosguibase/issues

Pull Requests

Despite commercial backing this is a true open-source project. We appriciate any inputs to the project as GitHub pull requests.