I am a complete beginner to python (I have only used it for a statistics class in the past). I want to develop a program that is kind of like FreeMind - it will allow the user to create Ishikawa diagrams for a particular purpose.

So essentially I want the user to be able to construct the Ishikawa diagram from a user interface while the internal representation in the form of a tree is being constructed behind the scenes.

I am wondering if Python is a good language to do such a thing in? Can I develop good guis in python and if so what would the best tools be for the job if I wanted to do so? The reason I ask about Python is that the person I discussed this project with would prefer that to be the language if possible. Or is some other language (not java as the person does not prefer it) more suitable for the purpose?

Thanks for any advice that you can give me.

I rekon you could do something simillar in python, of course it would take a lot of time and care but to do such a thing you need a GUI as you said and there are really only 3 main ones used (4 if you count qt).
That is
Tkinter
wxPython
pyGame

Firstly i don't think pyGame does the job, as the name states its for games.

Tkinter is pretty basic and no fun to work with in my opinion and in the end i pretty much do most things in wxPython as it is easy and great looking with lots of widgets that you can use to make things look even better.

So i think yes, you can do it, and i would do it in wxPython if i were you.

PyQt is by far the best gui toolkit for python. wxPython and pyGTK can't compare to it. It is a truly cross platform commercial grade library with excellent documentation. The only reason it doesn't have a broader user base is because the free version is under a gpl license (soon to be changed)

I have tried all the other main ones and have been severely frustrated with using them (with the exception of pyGTK, but it isn't really cross platform anyway, and doesn't look very nice on Windows).

The other options:

wxPython
pyGTK
TKinter
Ironpython
PythonCard

I have used PyQT, it is okay, but the user base is tiny and there is precious little help and too few good examples out on the net. You post a question on PyQt and rarely ever get an answer.

That may very well be true. I use a book and the documentation as my PyQt reference. I haven't really found a viable community to get help from.

As you pointed out, the licensing issue has turned of lot of usually "open Source" people off. I think PyQT has a lot of things going for it.

+1 for wxpython for some reasons:
1. I have developed some apps in Python, and it is very easy and fast once you get used to it
2. No licence problems if I decide to sell my apps
3. You can use wxglade (I'm always happy with hard coding)
4. A lot of help out there (I learned without any book), though poor official docs but there is wxpython demo showing how to use widgets

Here are some apps development arguments (caution: some might be very old posts):
http://www.pythonthreads.com/article...lication..html
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/de...iz.5.286090.10
http://wiki.wxpython.org/wxPythonPit%20Apps

Thanks for the helpful replies - after Googling the names mentioned it seems to me that wxPython and wxGlade might prove helpful for me.

good, wxpython wiki at www.wxpython.org is a good start

wxGlade is very useful and friendly. We can generate the code of our design in many languages. i also very new to python and i found wxPython and wxGlade very useful....
also one suggestion use the SPE editor for script development that is also very useful....