PyQt vs PySide comparison [closed]

Question

I currently develop many applications in a Qt heavy C++/Python environment on Linux, porting to PC/Mac as needed. I use Python embedded in C++ as well as in a stand alone GUI. Qt is used fro xml parsing/event handling/GUI/threading and much more. Right now all my Python work is in PyQt and I wanted to see how everyone views PySide. I'm interested because it is in house and as such should support more components with hopefully better integration. What are your experiences?

I know this has been asked before, but I want to revive the conversation.

Shieh

PyQt is better for beginners b/c it has a more active community and has moved along with Qt (as of now, there is no PySide binding for Qt 5). – Imperfection

Answer 1

We were recently thinking about using PySide, but we haven't found any information about whether it is supported by py2exe. That's why we kept to PyQt. If you need to develop for Windows, it's safer to use good ol' PyQt :-)

Hopper

pyside works fine with pyinstaller. – Auricula

It works fine, but the binaries are currently a little larger (with Python 2.6, ideally compressed with the right options and UPX, about 9.3MB instead of 8.1MB); also it adds a dependency on msvcp90.dll, a side-by-side assembly (Python 2.6 uses msvcr90.dll but not p). – Meingolda

Yes, well my answer might not be current, because code changes all the time. Maybe pyside works now well, which would be cool. – Hopper

Hatchet: hack frozen PySide apps down to size: rfk.id.au/blog/entry/hatchet-hack-frozen-pyside-apps – Marsipobranch

Answer 2

As of PySide 1.0 beta (Qt 4.7.1), there is an official Windows installer that works. It doesn't include QtDesigner and other tools, only uic.

Bloodletting

use the pythonxy package which includes numpy, Qtdesigner etc. working well as of Jan 2011 – Coloration

Answer 3

PySide currently does not run on Windows, which limits your capability. If you were developing on Linux and needed to avoid pure GPL, then PySide is a candidate.

From an API standpoint, I find the signal/slots capability feels more "Pythonic".

Donahoe

A version for Windows was released on 31 August 2010. See pyside.org/2010/08/windows-version-released – Juline

PyQt4 does have QtCore.pyqtSignal and QtCore.pyqtSlot. QtCore.Signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal and QtCore.Slot = QtCore.pyqtSlot, and then that's fixed. :-) As for the QString, QVariant etc. stuff, you can put in the sip.setapi calls mentioned in their docs and then it behaves more like it should (viz, like PySide does). – Meingolda

PySide runs fine on Windows now. – Imperfection