[chirp_devel] Comments on a UI rewrite

[Dan Smith]

> Did you consider PyQT as an alternative? Riverbank Computing has done a fantastic job maintaining python wrappers for Qt and likewise it also generates native windows for each platform. There is  a build tool called PyQt Deploy that helps package up the app for various platforms (I have not used it however)
> 
> The python documentation for pyqt is pretty lacking IMHO but referencing the official qt.io website makes developing a breeze as the PyQt wrapper is almost identical every time (some variations exist when you run into pointers to pointers and such).

I did indirectly because I've used pyqt before. It's okay, and does address the concern of stability, likely future proofness, etc. However, it's more complex for sure, and I recall it not feeling super Pythonic or intuitive. I also don't think QT generates *actual* native widgets, just that it draws widgets on each platform that *look* native. We've long been beat up by the blind community for not having native widgets on Windows, which causes their screen readers to see a blank window. This is not a primary goal here, but it certainly seems like a nice thing, especially since even Windows' look and feel has changed over time.

I can say that the wx-based MacOS app is worlds better than GTK3 using Cocoa drawing and emulating the native Mac widgets.

--Dan