Python for cross platform desktop application

Question

I have been writing desktop application in c# and of the experience of writing my code in VS, compiling it and let .NET framework do the running and execution.

Now there is a problem, some of my users now use other OS order than windows, I decided to start learning python to build cross platform application (let's not debate why this is my choice). Now these are my questions.

• How do we compile python application to be distributed, will the user have to install python, I use sublime text written in python and I never installed python interpreter before using it.
• Speaking of UI programming, please which framework is best for rich desktop app programming and why, remember I'm coming from a tool like WPF
• Simple app installation - too many of my users are not very computer savvy, so the easier the install the better, how to I have a .exe for windows and maybe .pkg or .dmg for MAC, you know what I mean.

Constructive criticism but with answers. I'm new to python although I can use it to code console application for now. I'm using eclipse + pydev

Answer 1

The "simplest" option is to have python on the machine you wish to run the python script on. The same script will work on Windows, linux ... whatever, as long as it's run through a suitable version of python. You can manage the environment using virtualenv

There are other options, eg py2exe will turn python scripts into a Windows exe, though that won't help your non-windows users.