Tkinter is a Python binding to the Tk GUI toolkit. It is the standard Python interface to the Tk GUI toolkit, and is Python's de facto standard GUI. Tkinter is included with the standard Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X install of Python.
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The name Tkinter comes from Tk interface. Tkinter was written by Fredrik Lundh.
As with most other modern Tk bindings, Tkinter is implemented as a Python wrapper around a complete Tcl interpreter embedded in the Python interpreter. Tkinter calls are translated into Tcl commands which are fed to this embedded interpreter, thus making it possible to mix Python and Tcl in a single application.
Python 2.7 and Python 3.1 incorporate the "themed Tk" ("ttk") functionality of Tk 8.5. This allows Tk widgets to be easily themed to look like the native desktop environment in which the application is running, thereby addressing a long-standing criticism of Tk (and hence of Tkinter).
There are several popular GUI library alternatives available, such as wxPython, PyQt (PySide), Pygame, Pyglet, and PyGTK.
Tkinter is free software released under a Python license.
Window
This term has different meanings in different contexts, but in general it refers to a rectangular area somewhere on the user's display screen.
Top Level Window
A window that exists independently on the screen. It will be decorated with the standard frame and controls for the desktop manager. It can be moved around the desktop, and can usually be resized.
Widget
The generic term for any of the building blocks that make up an application in a graphical user interface. Examples of widgets: buttons, radiobuttons, text fields, frames, and text labels.
Frame
In Tkinter, the Frame widget is the basic unit of organization for complex layouts. A frame is a rectangular area that can contain other widgets.
Child and parent
When any widget is created, a parent-child relationship is created. For example, if you place a text label inside a frame, the frame is the parent of the label.
A minimal application
Here is a simple Python 3 Tkinter application: (For Python 2, the only difference is the word "tkinter" in the import command will be capitalized to "Tkinter.")