Ask HN: Best way to do a cross-platform Python GUI in taskbar (eg Dropbox)?

2 points by ObsoleteNerd 7y ago ↗ HN

I want to persistently run a small Python program on the user's computer with an icon in the taskbar, that will work on Windows/Linux/OSX, with a few items in the pop-up menu.

Basically the exact same way Dropbox works as far as GUI goes.

It just needs to have the program running all the time from boot, monitoring something, and let them click the icon to open a little menu that has 2 entries to run functions in the program, and 1 entry to open a Settings/Config window.

I'm open to not using Python if there's a better way, but I was hoping to use this project to learn more Python, so that's preferable.

2 comments

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quantummkv 7y ago ↗

You can do it exactly like dropbox does and use QT for the UI with python. Another alternative is Electron, but it is not recommended for a small application due to its size and requirements.

ObsoleteNerd 7y ago ↗

Yeh I'd like to stay away from Electron just for the bloat/speed issues. This is such a small program that it would be overkill.

I'll look into QT, thanks. I've only ever done command line stuff so far.