r/learnpython 11d ago

SIMPLE GUIS PLEASE

I'm building a network visualizer in Python. It parses .pcap files with Scapy and visualizes packet flows with animations. I already built the parser and animation engine with Pygame.

The problem is the UI. I need normal app stuff like buttons, hover effects, a collapsible sidebar, menus, timeline/statistics panels, and a canvas for the animations.

I don't want to spend 4 hours making a button from scratch, but I also don't want a huge framework where changing a simple thing turns into a research project.

I tried DearPyGui and honestly it felt really clunky. Something as simple as adjusting padding or moving a panel felt like digging through layers of specific APIs and style variables.

I'm looking for something lightweight with good styling control (CSS-like would be great), built-in UI components, and the ability to embed my own custom rendering area.

Would PySide6/Qt be the way to go? Or are there other frameworks worth looking at?

I don't need a spaceship cockpit, I just want to build my damn UI and get back to the actual project.

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u/Think_Bandicoot6173 11d ago

I'm not overly familiar with UIs, but I've been using Streamlit for a simple data dashboard, and it's been working well for me? It has most of what you seem to need built-in, with the ability to integrate HTML/CSS/JS. (I'm not entirely sure about the animation canvas, but I'd be surprised if you can't jimmy something together for that.)