How can I add a simple non-interactive gui to my python application?

Question

I have written a little python utility that monitors my typing speed, using pyxhook to hook keyboard events, and a thread timer to update my words per minute number.

Right now it just prints to the terminal every 2 seconds.

How can I make this appear in a little always-on-top gui box?

I tried playing around with tkinter, but the mainloop() function doesn't like my key listener and timer. It seems I can only run the gui OR my event handlers, but not both.

Unfortunately I don't think I can use the keyhandler in tkinter, since I am wanting to capture events from other windows.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I don't know how to go about doing this in tk, but I've been using PySide lately and I know you could use that.

One way to do it in pyside would be with two classes running in separate threads that communicate using the Qt signal & slot mechanism available in pyside. One class would subclass QThread & get methods that run your existing code & pass the data via signals to the Ui class. The 2nd class would be the one for your gui elements. it would call for an instance of the first class, connect the signals & slots, then start it & begin drawing the display.

resources if you go the pyside route:

• http://www.matteomattei.com/pyside-signals-and-slots-with-qthread-example/
• search 'pyside dock widget' on this site
• search for github's pyside examples
• https://pyside.github.io/docs/pyside/PySide/QtCore/QThread.html?highlight=qthread