On macOS, you do still have to do a Pip/EasyInstall for the WxPython package, but that's the same for packages like PythonXML and such. Your installer or .app bundle or whatever could take care of that dependency. I'm a bit of a Python novice -- I've used it for task automation and batch processing and the like, but haven't written graphical stuff in it before, but it seems pretty easy.

As far as screen readers go, it appears to have accessibility on all platforms. Other than web stuff, I've never played around with screen readers. I can tinker with it. I'd be willing to bet it has better support on Windows/Mac than GTK, but I don't know this from experience.

Aaron Traas | https://traas.org/ | @aarontraas

On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 6:07 PM, Tom Hayward <tom@tomh.us> wrote:

The Chirp UI has been mature for many years and very little work goes
into it now. That means you probably would not disrupt anybody with a
UI overhaul. Moreover, I don't believe any of the active Chirp
developers have much experience or interest in UI development, so if
you want to "own" this that would be a great complement to the team.

It would be nice to be able to run Chirp on macOS without first
installing the KK7DS Python/PyGTK runtime. It's my understanding that
WxPython is standard on macOS. Is this correct? No external
dependencies?

One frequent request is better screen reader support. GTK screen
reader support is best on Linux, so we usually refer blind hams there.
Is WxPython better in this regard due to use of native widgets?

Tom KD7LXL

On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 2:47 PM, Aaron Traas via chirp_devel
<chirp_devel@intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
> I'm a new user to CHIRP and a newly minted Ham (KD2MMN) who just used this
> fantastic software to program my new Baofeng UV-5R variant. I'm also a
> software developer with a lot of experience writing front-end code.
>
> I've noticed the Mac version of CHIRP has a dated UI and very non-native
> feel, much like other GTK apps on the Mac.
>
> If the powers that be are open to the idea, I could reimplement the chirp.ui
> package in WxPython, which is much nicer on macOS and Windows than GTK, as
> it's an abstraction layer for the native UI components for all platforms,
> and will render as GTK on Linux.
>
> If this is welcome, I'll start tinkering around with the port. If you're
> unlikely to wish to move to a different UI toolkit, I could try to find
> other ways to be useful.
>
> --
> Aaron Traas | https://traas.org/ | @aarontraas
>
>

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