[Python] Cross platform Python apps

[Rob Hudson]

They're using XUL for Windows.  I'd imagine they could then use XUL for 
OS X and Linux, just as Firefox does, and still remain cross platform.

However, they made the interesting choice to use Cocao (via PyObjC, I 
think) for OS X and GTK for Linux in an effort to give the app a more 
native look and feel.  I would think that would bring along with it some 
extra portability problems -- instead of using Gecko on each platform 
they're using Gecko on Windows, Webkit on OS X, not sure what it is on 
Linux.  They have WebKit issues, for example:
https://develop.participatoryculture.org/projects/democracy/wiki/WebKitIssues

But, I suppose for a visually appealing product on many platforms, the 
cost is worth the extra effort.  Maybe there are some speed advantages 
to this as well?

Since the first post I've found more docs on their frontend here:
https://develop.participatoryculture.org/projects/democracy/wiki/PortingAndFrontendGuide

Interesting project.

-Rob

Quentin Hartman wrote:
> There is a book about writing cross-platform Python applications using
> wxWindows as the GUI toolkit. I'd imagine that a large portion of the
> advice given in there would be relevant. As I understand it, provided
> that you use built-in libraries you should be pretty safe in terms of
> portability, and if you use os.* objects to do things like file
> creation and destruction and whatnot, all the platforms specific
> things should be abstracted away.
> 
> Don't consider me an authoritative source on this. I'm saying this
> based on things I've read and code I've examined. I haven't _actually_
> written any cross-platform Python scripts, though I have no reason to
> believe the stuff I have written wouldn't work on other platforms...
>