PySide - LGPL Python bindings for Qt

PySide, a new API for Python programmers who want to use Nokia's Qt framework, has been released. PySide is LGPL licensed and Nokia funded. The developers hope that this first public version of the PySide library, while it is still a work in progress, will become a new standard for developing Python/Qt applications.

The drive to create the new library has come from a desire for a non-GPL licensed set of bindings for the now LGPL licensed Qt framework. The PyQt bindings are GPL licensed, which causes issues for Nokia as it tries to encourage open source and proprietary developers to the Qt platform. According to the FAQ, Nokia initiated the PySide project within its Maemo group, after being unable to come to an agreement with Riverbank Computing, the makers of PyQt, to achieve the goal of a more widely usable Python/Qt binding.

An LGPL license protects the code within the library itself, but makes no demands that other code which uses the library be under the same or a compatible licence. To create an LGPL binding, the PySide developers have put several man years of work into creating a new tool set which, at least initially, generates PyQt compatible bindings.

The aim in the future is to provide an extra, more Pythonic API, to sit alongside the PyQt compatible bindings. The project will initially be led by Marcelo Lira, a Nokia funded developer at OpenBOSSA, part of INdT Nokia Technology Institute in Brazil. The PySide developers are looking for wider community involvement now they have a public release of the bindings and tool set.

(djwm)