What's the easiest way (language, tools, etc) to write quick-n-dirty ad-hoc GUI apps in Linux? [closed]

Question

For example to create a simple form with couple of controls, doing some simple logic on them, generating a shell command or a web service call and executing it here and now, assuming that it is going to be no tomorrow for this application, no unexpected things can occur to be handled, computer resources are unlimited, etc. The code'd be compact and readable, everything'd fit in 1-2 files, better no special project/solution/makefile at all.

Fourpence

Answer 1

One way would be using Tool Command Language. It supports rapid prototyping, scripted applications, GUIs and testing.

Deathful

Thanks. I've always supposed that TCL is of those weird scientist-oriented languages like Haskel. But it seems to be a handy tool. – Fourpence

Scientist-oriented? Haskell? :-/ – Fradin

TCL/TK is easy enough, but it always ends up looking so ugly. – Geometry

@Zan: You should use the Themed widgets; they look great (i.e., native) on Windows and OSX, and pretty good (depending on the theme chosen) on Linux. They're not quite a drop-in replacement for the old widgets though; you have to learn to leave more to the theme rather than tweaking everything by hand. – Selfgratification

I'd give this answer +10 if possible. Tcl is hands down the best quick-n-dirty GUI language for linux. By a wide margin IMO, and I've been doing quick-n-dirty (and commercial) GUI development on *nix for longer than I care to remember. – Grube

Answer 2

Python with Gtk is easy to use.

Ashantiashbaugh

Answer 3

If you are looking for prompting + user options then zenity is what you need. A command line prompting tool for use mostly in shell scripts.

Contraoctave

Answer 4

www.pygtk.org might be exactly what you are looking for. Well if you are familiar with C/C++ then you can try using gtk+-2.0. There are lot of sample tutorials and online help available for both..

Cupo

Answer 5

If you're keen on using straight shell scripts zenity gives you just enough power. If you prefer a language with a cleaner syntax and also a bit more power/flexibility python+gtk is a very good option.

Claiborne

Answer 6

Python + Tkinter if you want to write entire GUI based apps. Zenity if you want a slap a GUI onto your shell scripts.

Zitella

If you're using Tk, it is much easier to use it with Tcl than Python. Though if you like the extra overhead and OO-ness of Python, Tkinter is certainly a good solution. – Grube

Probably but in the past few years, I've seen a sharp decline in use of TCL. I completely forgot about it. – Zitella

live.gnome.org/Zenity – Caloyer

Answer 7

GNU Dialog. Tutorial from Linux Journal: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2807

Satem

That link takes me to the home page of the linux journal. Is the "m." at the front intentional? Plus, if I'm not mistaken GNU Dialog is only for creating dialogs, not to "create a simple form with couple of controls, doing some simple logic on them, generating a shell command or a web service call and executing it here and now..." like the question asks. – Grube

I was focusing on the 'simple' aspect, since the question doesn't specify what kinds of data you need to collect from the user. GNU Dialog can show menus, checklists, and radiolists; for a 'couple' of controls I could envision two dialogs which would collect the needed information, which you could then use to run your shell command or curl (for web service) directly from the same shell script. All the other suggestions are good, just not nearly as simple. Also, you wanted 1-2 lines. NONE of the others except Zenity provide this. – Satem