Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer

elef has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a sizeable perl script (an open source parallel text aligner) that is designed for non-techie users. I'm considering writing a GUI for it, and Tk seems to be the most obvious choice.
Now, this seems like it will be quite a lot of work, so before I start, I would like to make sure I won't hit a major snag.

I need the GUI to work on Windows, OS X and linux. Any portability issues to consider?
Also, is Tk compatible with PAR::Packer? As Windows doesn't come with Perl preinstalled, the Windows version of my program is a par-packed .exe, and I would like to keep it that way to make life easier for clueless users. Can PAR::Packer create a standalone executable out of a script with a Tk GUI?

Comment on Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer

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Re: Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer by zentara (Cardinal) on Jan 10, 2011 at 18:21 UTC
Can PAR::Packer create a standalone executable out of a script with a Tk GUI? I've never used it, but yes, it can. You may run into small problems like in Tk executable on non-perl machine You might also want to look at Cava I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh	[reply]
Re: Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer by andmott (Acolyte) on Jan 10, 2011 at 18:39 UTC
I'm not familiak with Tk, but I figured I'd offer up wxPerl if you havn't looked at it before. It is a wrapper for the wxWidgets GUI library, which seems quite portable. Par recommends using a seperate module to build an executable, Wx::Perl::Packager. Just something to look over.	[reply]
Re: Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer by lamprecht (Friar) on Jan 11, 2011 at 16:49 UTC
I use `pp` packed apps including `Tk` on Win / OsX / Linux and never had problems. The only issue that arises from time to time is with OsX users having to install X11.app from their 'Optional installs' CD. I think newer OsX versions have it installed by default. Cheers, Christoph	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Tk portability and compatibility with PAR::Packer by elef (Friar) on Jan 11, 2011 at 18:23 UTC
That's reassuring, thanks. I'm still on the fence about whether a GUI is worth the effort, but perhaps I'll start learning Tk and do a couple of tests to see how it goes.	[reply]