PyGadgets Products Page

PyGadgets — GUI Toys, Just for the Hack of It

icon

Welcome to the products page for PyGadgets, a portable toolbox for work and play. PyGadgets is a set of four desktop GUIs coded in Python/Tk and run from a quick-access toolbar:

  • ► PyCalc  —  a flexible calculator
  • ► PyClock  —  an analog/digital clock
  • ► PyPhoto  —  a portable image viewer
  • ► PyToe  —  an AI-based tic-tac-toe game

All four gadgets are originally from the book PP4E, but have been greatly enhanced, ported to macOS (f.k.a. Mac OS X) and Android, made more easily customizable, and bundled as both portable source code and standalone apps and executables for PC platforms. PyGadgets opens with a simple toolbar that launches the four GUIs on demand. In source and executable packages, each Gadget can also be run individually. In all formats, the '?' key opens in-program help in each of the GUIs. For a quick tour of PyGadgets' utilities, browse its PC screenshots, and its Android how-to.

Download

PyGadgets runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android. It's available as a platform-specific macOS app, Windows exe (both 64- and 32-bit), and Linux executable, plus a complete source-code package that runs on all four platforms. Click the download link below to fetch the package you wish to use. The app, exes, and executable may be easier to install and run, but source code can be studied, is required on Android today, and nullifies issues covered by the next section's pointers.

macOS app ☞ Download PyGadgets.app.zip
Windows exe, 64 bit ☞ Download PyGadgets-64bit.zip
Windows exe, 32 bit ☞ Download PyGadgets-32bit.zip
Linux executable ☞ Download PyGadgets.zip
Source-code package ☞ Download PyGadgets-source.zip

Usage

For more details on PyGadgets' download packages, as well as their complete install and usage instructions, see the main README.txt. In brief, you'll fetch, unzip, and run either the unzipped app itself (macOS), a same-named executable inside the unzip (Windows and Linux), or the program's main script in the unzipped source code (all platforms).

The latest getting-started pointers:

Source-code users
The PyToe widget requires a minor mod for recent Pythons: change both time.clock() to time.perf_counter() in file _PyToe/TicTacToe/tictactoe_lists.py of the unzipped PyGadgets-source package. This is not required for and does not impact apps or executables, because they use older Pythons. The was broken by opinionated change in Python, and patched in the Android port.
macOS users
See the tips and fixes for your platform's first-run warnings. This applies only to the macOS app, not source code, and the app does not require app-folder permissions. The readme covers Launchpad on your platform.

Mojave users: see also this to fix crashes and blank windows caused by macOS dark mode.

Apple M-chip users: the Rosetta 2 emulator is required to run the app package, but not source code.

Update: per 2023 vetting on macOS Ventura, launching the 2017 app package no longer works, because the launcher toolbar does not spawn individual widgets; please use the source-code package on recent macOS versions instead.

Windows users
See the tips and fixes for your platform's first-run warnings, executable start-up speed, and blurry text on Windows 10+. The first two of these apply only to Windows executables, not source code.

Update: as of 2023, this program's app and source-code have now been vetted to work well on Windows 11, in addition to 7, 8, and 10.

Linux users
You can add PyGadgets to your applications launcher by fetching this file and installing it per steps 1..4 in this tip. See also this tip for a possibly useful library fix for the executable.

Update: per this note in 2020, PyGadgets' Linux executable was broken by recent Linux changes; please use the source-code package instead.

Android users
See this doc for details on running PyGadgets on your platform. In short, you'll fetch and patch its source-code package, and launch it in an app's IDE.

Android 11+ users: see also this for recent changes on Android; these may impact file access in the PyPhoto widget.

Update: in 2023, Pydroid 3's version 6 imposed extra rules for running this program on Android; see the coverage here.

Resources