All right.
So our main goal in today's lessons is to learn about the Tkinter module and see
how we can use it to create graphical user interfaces,
also known as a, a gui or a GUI. Now,
GUIs were a huge deal back in the nineties because previously,
in order to interact with a computer,
you had to use a command line operating system such as MS-DOS.
So this is kind of similar to our Python console,
where everything we wanted the computer to do
we had to tell it by writing a piece of text.
So if we wanted Python to print hello, we have to write out the text.
But GUIs were different.
GUIs are graphical, and accompanied with a mouse,
they allow a user with very little training in computers
to be able to just point and click on the thing that they want to do on the
screen.
And one of the earliest computers that incorporated this type of
GUI operating system was the Mac Lisa.
It had these little windows
which you can click on and it launches programs,
which you can interact with by pointing and clicking. Now,
I mentioned that the Mac had these windows and in fact,
the Mac had programmed windows before Windows actually existed.
So Windows was Microsoft's version of the graphical user interface operating
system. And when it first came out,
it created quite a bit of controversy because it seemed like it might've stolen
this idea from Apple because after all, the Mac
Lisa came out way before even Windows one
let alone windows 95 or the later version that you might be familiar with.
And this even led Apple to Sue Microsoft for infringing on their intellectual
rights for using this graphical user interface to interact with the computer.
This is how big a deal GUIs were a back in the nineties.
There was such a big breakthrough in interacting with computers and that made it
so important to both Apple and Microsoft that they ended up battling in court.
Now, even to this day,
Bill Gates gets asked whether if he actually copied the graphical user interface
idea of an operating system from Steve jobs and Apple.
And I read on a recent Reddit AMA where somebody asked him this question,
he actually responded by saying that the copying wasn't really copying.
It was just that they hired some people from another company, Xerox
PARC, and it just happened that they were continuing on the work that they were
working on before.
But the more colorful piece of history actually comes from the biography of
Steve jobs by Walter Isaacson and in there,
there is this brilliant depiction of the scene where Steve Jobs, surrounded
by his employees, is basically just going off on bill Gates,
telling him that you're of ripping us off. I trusted you
and now you're stealing from us.
You saw the earlier versions of our operating system,
and you're now using it in your Microsoft software.
And to his credit, Bill Gates actually managed to come up with a pretty good
response on the spot where he said, "Well, Steve,
I think there's more than one way of looking at it.
I think it's more like we both have this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke
into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.
That was a pretty good comeback from Bill Gates. And the Xerox that they are
referring to is Xerox parc.
It's the Palo Alto right search center that was creating loads of breakthroughs,
um, in terms of the computing industry. And in fact,
they created the first graphical user interface that was actually put into use
in a computer before Apple or Microsoft even thought about it.
They also created other things like the Ethernet or the first Object-Oriented
Programming language. And most importantly,
they also created the first graphical user interface that
allowed a user to interact with the computer by pointing and clicking.
And they even developed the first mouse to allow people to do this.
So this is a little bit of Silicon Valley history
that is particularly fascinating. If you're interested,
there is a movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley that goes into this story
in more detail and this is where I first found out about it.
But coming back to what we're doing,
I just wanted to show you just how important the graphical user interface was
when it first came about. So we're going to learn how to use Tkinter
to create our very own graphical interface programs so that we're no longer
reliant on these console based or text based programs,
and we're also not working within the playpen of the turtle module.
We're going to be building some big boy and big girl programs now.
So let's get started.