Oct
18
Solving callbacks for Python GUIs
There are a number of blogs out there that tackle the problems of callbacks for servers, or for Javascript, but novices trying to write Python GUIs shouldn't have to learn about the different issues involved in servers, or a whole different language.
In another post, I showed the two major approaches to writing asynchronous GUI code: threading and callbacks. Both have drawbacks. But there are a number of techniques to get many of the advantages of threads, on top of callbacks. So, to some extent, you can get (part of) the best of both worlds.
Most of these techniques come from the world of network servers. The central issue facing network servers is the same as GUIs--your application has to be written as a bunch of event handlers that can't block or take a long time.
In another post, I showed the two major approaches to writing asynchronous GUI code: threading and callbacks. Both have drawbacks. But there are a number of techniques to get many of the advantages of threads, on top of callbacks. So, to some extent, you can get (part of) the best of both worlds.
Most of these techniques come from the world of network servers. The central issue facing network servers is the same as GUIs--your application has to be written as a bunch of event handlers that can't block or take a long time.
