Not directly programming or coding GUI from scratch with a library or something: Have you considered using a game engine like Godot ( godotengine.org/ ) ?

You would have a toolbox for several essential GUI-elements. You could visually create the GUI and add functionality by script. Also, there are several possibilities to handle different screen sizes and touch.

You would have to learn the UI and concepts of Godot but the documentation is ok and there are plenty of tutorials available.

Godot Engine - Free and open source 2D and 3D game engine

Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.

^{Godot Engine}

You can start with Tkinter since it's a standard python library. Here's a tutorial to get you started.

geeksforgeeks.org/python-tkint…

Python Tkinter Tutorial

Tkinter is the most commonly used library for developing GUI (Graphical User Interface) in Python. It is a standard Python interface to the Tk GUI toolkit shipped with Python.

^{GeeksforGeeks}

If you're just trying to familiarize yourself with GUI programming in general, the fastest is going to be Gnome Builder or QT Creator (depending on which DE you're working in). Both are great tools, and make it super easy to understand what goes into all the different pieces of making a GUI app.

If you want something more portable to mobile, maybe Ionic or Cordova would be interesting to you.

Slint

I really like Slint.

It has Python bindings, tho you wouldn't know it from the docs as it's brand new bindings.

However, it does WORK, and it works well.

Just look for python files in the examples and reference the slint docs (it uses its own UI lang for that stuff anyway).

I'm currently making an application in Python using Slint, and I really like it.

It also supports embedded systems, the web, and multiple languages, AND since it has its own UI lang, you can reuse parts of your UI code across different codebases

It seems to suit your use case.

Godot

Other than that, I second Godot.

HOWEVER

Godot's GD Script is not Python but rather a Python-like language. (in fact, in some ways, I'm glad it's not; there are things I prefer in GD Script).

This is important as you may want to use specific Python libraries which won't work with Godot!

You can, however, use GD Native to bind C++ code and thus C++ libraries, so you'll still be able to get done whatever you need to get done.

Iced

If you're not tied to Python, then I recommend the Rust library Iced as it is a very intuitive system. I really enjoy working with it.

Although, that said, Slint has great support for Rust, so maybe I'd recommend Slint anyway if you were gonna change language.

Warning Against Legacy

Avoid GTK, Qt, and TK at all costs imo. Also WinForms if ur on Windows.

They're old and crusty, and their APIs suck to use, even modern versions, and despite being aged, they're buggy still, not robust "tried-and-true" methods.

It's also hard to do dynamic stuff with them.

Just not well designed systems. Important, valuable to know bc they're used all over, but not well designed

Immediate

I would also try ImGUI.

It's meant more for gamedev UIs rather than Apps themselves (tho I've made a couple in it)

BUT

It's a totally different way of doing UI called "Immediate" bc you program the elements in a big loop, rather than event driven.

It's interesting and worth trying as a learning experience

React

And ofc, the Javascript/Electron world is huge and React is very popular with lots of tools. At least read up on it.

I've been using Flutter, I like how it's cross-platform, mostly. I've generally built things for Android, but the desktop (Linux and Windows) and web versions usually compile fine with no tweaking. Couldn't speak to the iOS versions as I can't be arsed to jump through Apple's hoops. You can make a nice looking app with it for whichever platform you're targeting.

It's very well supported, lots of examples, well documented. Not as much out there as Python for examples and troubleshooting, but not bad.

My goal is to code basic buttons and understand how operating systems implement the way they draw windows for applications.

So do you want to program a GUI yourself, and not using a library, correct ?

I've worked with GUIs on python for a couple of years, we used PyQt, which is a python wrapper for Qt which is a C++ library for GUIs. It's fairly straightforward and easy to get something up on the screen in no time.

However from parts of your comment it seems you want to implement your own graphics library, and that is a lot harder to do.

Also you mentioned legacy hardware, not sure how legacy it would be. Python should run on most things people would call legacy nowadays, but there's definitely an overhead that could be felt if you're trying to run this on an embebed system or a REALLY old (as in 90s/00s era) computer.

You also mentioned mobile, I don't think PyQt can be compiled to mobile easily, nor do I think you should even if you manage to (been there, done that, not a happy time). Desktop and Mobile GUIs are very different, realistically if you want something that works well on both mobile and desktop with the same codebase the easiest approach is web UI.

I don't like a lot of python stuff, especially the gui related. flutter (dart) probably the easiest thing I've ever used and it works across tons of systems including mobile. Other than that the classic html/css/javascript lol.

Anything that needs big processing of course will suffer with these, I've never done that on a GUI though, the backends only.

Beeware!

Toga is a blessing. You can make apps for Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux and Web - all with the same codebase!

I'm going to agree with a lot of the other posters and say QT with QT creator. It's a tested and well though out implementation. It's signals and slots event system is straight forward and easy to learn.

Whatever route you take learn Model View Controller (MVC). It gets in the mindset of keeping your data model seprate from things that use the data and things that change the data.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%…

This might be of interest for you, and its free PDF. From 2019 but still actual.

An Introduction to C & GUI Programming – the new book from Raspberry Pi Press

Well, in short: Display Managers (X Wayland, Android's Surface Flinger) have a set of instructions and translate them into lines, characters, etc.

GUI frameworks are basically a simple vector graphics application (send those instructions) with bitmap-support and additionally pre-programmed sequences like, pressing a button. And that set of pre-programmed sequences and how it signsl-handling etc is organized, determines the usecases the framework is suited for.

That said, I'm a firm believer that doing GUIs through code is an inefficient, cumbersome, and antiquated process that should be replaced with more visual alternatives

what do you mean? I'm not familiar with Godot.

Android comes to mind where most commonly you build the UI in XML. what do you think about that?

I don't see much point in making GUI apps for desktop nowadays, especially since desktop usage is in decline compared to smartphones. If you still want to, I'd go with iced, which is in rust, and well designed.

I'd recommend learning either android jetpack-compose, or iOS app dev.

GitHub - iced-rs/iced: A cross-platform GUI library for Rust, inspired by Elm

A cross-platform GUI library for Rust, inspired by Elm - iced-rs/iced

^GitHub

If your on Android;

Amdroid is the best alarm app I'm aware of.
(Called "Alarm clock for heavy sleepers" on play store)

play.google.com/store/apps/det…

(Best few bucks Ive spent on an app, ad version just has ads in ui, nothing crazy)
It has a feature where 5 min after you dismiss the alarm, it'll send a notification asking if your awake. If you don't respond after a while, the alarm goes again. (Times adjustable)

Sorry I've typed more than intended too, I'll put most under a spoiler so its not a wall of text....

::: spoiler wall of text
It also manages alarms setting as profiles, set up a few types of alarms once and when setting new alarms you only have to set a time and pick a profile.

Tons of different options;
You can make them location or calendar dependent, make dismissing them require a certain light level or WiFi signal strength (go turn on a light or stand next to router in other room). You can make your self do some math or captcha to dismiss alarm (I have mine set to require a simple captcha when deleting,). You can make snooze duration get incrementally less, so maybe 10min, then 8, then 6 and so on...

Got a day off or need to wake up early one day, well you can skip or change the time for just the next time the alarm is supposed to go off, then it goes back to normal.

:::

Alarm Clock for Heavy Sleepers - Apps on Google Play

Smart alarm clock with timer, stopwatch, holidays support & calendar integration

^{play.google.com}

The best one ever