A Threaded Tkinter Toplevel Console Window

The code below implements a GUI window for output display, such as might be used as a console to display status messages or other information from a running program. It is implemented using a threaded Tkinter Toplevel widget, and is designed to be used in a non-GUI command-line program. The display that it produces looks like this:

The Python code for this GUI console is:

class ConsoleUIError(Exception):
 def __init__(self, msg):
  self.value = msg
 def __repr__(self):
  return ("ConsoleUIError(%r)" % self.value)

class ConsoleUI(object):
 class TkUI(object):
  def __init__(self, kill_event, stop_update_event, msg_queue, status_queue, title=None):
   self.kill_event = kill_event
   self.stop_update_event = stop_update_event
   self.msg_queue = msg_queue
   self.status_queue = status_queue
   import Tkinter as tk1
   import ttk as ttk1
   self.win = tk1.Toplevel()
   self.status_msg = tk1.StringVar()
   self.status_msg.set('')
   self.win.title(title if title else "execsql console")
   console_frame = ttk1.Frame(master=self.win, padding="2 2 2 2")
   console_frame.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky=tk1.NSEW)
   self.textarea = tk1.Text(console_frame, width=100, height=25, wrap='none')
   # Status bar
   statusframe = ttk1.Frame(master=self.win)
   statusbar = ttk1.Label(statusframe, text='', textvariable=self.status_msg, 
    relief=tk1.RIDGE, anchor=tk1.W)
   statusbar.pack(side=tk1.BOTTOM, fill=tk1.X)
   statusframe.grid(column=0, row=1, sticky=tk1.EW)
   # Scrollbars
   vscroll = tk1.Scrollbar(console_frame, orient="vertical", command=self.textarea.yview)
   hscroll = tk1.Scrollbar(console_frame, orient="horizontal", command=self.textarea.xview)
   self.textarea.configure(yscrollcommand=vscroll.set)
   self.textarea.configure(xscrollcommand=hscroll.set)
   self.textarea.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky=tk1.NSEW)
   vscroll.grid(column=1, row=0, sticky=tk1.NS)
   hscroll.grid(column=0, row=2, sticky=tk1.EW)
   # Allow resizing
   self.win.columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
   self.win.rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
   console_frame.columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
   console_frame.rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
   # Kill on window close
   self.win.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", self.kill)
   # Display and center the window
   self.win.update_idletasks()
   m = re.match("(\d+)x(\d+)([-+]\d+)([-+]\d+)", self.win.geometry())
   wwd = int(m.group(1))
   wht = int(m.group(2))
   swd = self.win.winfo_screenwidth()
   sht = self.win.winfo_screenheight()
   xpos = (swd/2) - (wwd/2)
   ypos = (sht/2) - (wht/2)
   self.win.geometry("%dx%d+%d+%d" % (wwd, wht, xpos, ypos))
   self.win.grab_set()
   self.win._root().withdraw()
   self.update_id = self.win.after(200, self.update)
   self.win.wait_window(self.win)
  def kill(self):
   if self.update_id:
    self.win.after_cancel(self.update_id)
    self.update_id = None
   self.win.destroy()
   self.win.update_idletasks()
  def update(self):
   self.update_id = None
   while not self.msg_queue.empty():
    msg = self.msg_queue.get(False)
    self.textarea.insert('end', msg)
    self.textarea.see('end')
    self.msg_queue.task_done()
   while not self.status_queue.empty():
    msg = self.status_queue.get(False)
    self.status_msg.set(msg)
   if self.kill_event.is_set():
    self.kill()
   else:
    if not self.stop_update_event.is_set():
     self.update_id = self.win.after(200, self.update)
 def __init__(self, title=None):
  self.title = title
  self.msg_queue = Queue.Queue()
  self.status_queue = Queue.Queue()
  self.kill_event = threading.Event()
  self.stop_update_event = threading.Event()
  self.consolethread = None
  self.update_id = None
  # Start the local event loop in a thread.
  def openconsole():
   self.active = True
   self.ui = self.TkUI(self.kill_event, self.stop_update_event, self.msg_queue, 
    self.status_queue, self.title)
   # Deallocate the Tk object here to avoid the "main thread is not in main loop" error.
   self.ui = None
  self.consolethread = threading.Thread(target=openconsole)
  self.consolethread.start()
 def write(self, msg):
  self.active = self.consolethread and self.consolethread.is_alive()
  if not self.active:
   raise ConsoleUIError(msg)
  self.msg_queue.put(msg)
 def write_status(self, msg):
  self.active = self.consolethread and self.consolethread.is_alive()
  if not self.active:
   raise ConsoleUIError(msg)
  self.status_queue.put(msg)
 def deactivate(self):
  self.kill_event.set()
  if self.consolethread and self.consolethread.is_alive():
   self.consolethread.join()
  self.active = False
 def wait_for_user_quit(self):
  self.stop_update_event.set()
  if self.consolethread and self.consolethread.is_alive():
   self.consolethread.join()
  self.active = False

Because it runs in its own thread, this console can be used to display information produced by the main program or even several other separate processes.

The 'write()' method of the ConsoleUI object will write the given text at the end of the console display.  A status message can also be written, separately from the stream of text that is written in the main part of the window.  The console window can be closed directly from the program with the 'deactivate()' method, or the program can pause until the user closes the window by using the 'wait_for_user_quit()' method.

Other Tkinter widgets should not be activated in other threads while this GUI console window is open.