Available graphics packages

One of the advantages of python is that there are many different graphical user interfaces to choose from. Here is a brief discussion of a few options:

Visual Python

has its own interface package. It is very simple to use, a simple call will check if a the user has interacted with it and act accordingly. Unfortunately, its functionality is somewhat lacking. The biggest problem is that the only way to input a value is through using a slider. The user has no way of knowing the exact value of the slider, which for the purposes of our simulation, is unsatisfactory.

Tkinter

is the main graphics package used in python applications. It is a set of python bindings for the Tcl/Tk graphics package. It is a standard part of any python distribution, and so is easily portable.

PyGTK

is a set of python bindings for GTK. GTK is a very commonly used graphics package in UNIX, has many more widgets than Tcl/Tk, and is also faster than Tcl/Tk. As the author of this document has had previous experience in GTK, and not in Tk, PyGTK has been chosen as the preferred interface.