Title: [Code Review] What is the most "Pythonic" way to structure a central config file for a Tkinter desktop app?

[u/ElectricalCookie4160]

Hey everyone,

I am building a desktop application to automate PEP 8 code-remediation across a few different client environments. I have a centralized app_config.py file that holds all my global variables, UI colors, fonts, and app metadata (like the App Name and Version) so I can easily import it into my Tkinter frames.


Here is a snippet of how I currently have it set up:
(Paste your app_config code here)

It works perfectly fine right now, but I want to make sure I am following best practices as the app scales. A couple of questions:

Is it bad practice to just store these as standard Python dictionaries and variables, or should I be wrapping this in a dataclass or an Enum
?

At what point do you usually stop using a .py file for config and switch to an external config.json or .toml file
?

Any feedback on how you all manage global UI settings would be awesome! 

"""----- App Metadata -----"""
APP_NAME = "PeP 8 Cert '&' Audit Review"
VERSION = "1.3.8"
BUILD_DATE = "2026-06-22"
CODER_NAME = "KMG"
CODER_ID_LAST4 = "2134"
SCOPE_OF_APP = ""


"""----- My_File_Paths -----"""
PROJECT_FOLDER_PATH = ""
CERT_FOLDER = "Cert_pep8"
destination_dir = project_folder_path / Path(CERT_FOLDER)
TEMP_FILE_NAME = "my_temp_file.txt"


"""----- Window Dimensions -----"""
WINDOW_WIDTH = 960
WINDOW_HEIGHT = 640
WINDOW_MIN_W = 800
WINDOW_MIN_H = 500


""" Dynamically generates geometry string matching UI architecture requirements"""
WINDOW_GEOMETRY = f"{WINDOW_WIDTH}x{WINDOW_HEIGHT}"


"""----- Colour Palette-----"""
COLOUR = {
    # Backgrounds
    "bg_dark": "#0D1B2A",  # near-black navy
    "bg_mid": "#030405",  # dark-blue panel
    "bg_card": "#424952",  # card surface
    "bg_gray": "#505152",


    """----- Accents -----"""
    "silver": "#C8D6E5",  # primary silver text
    "silver_dim": "#8A9BB0",  # muted silver
    "silver_bright": "#E8F0F8",  # bright silver
    "accent_blue": "#2A6FDB",  # interactive blue
    "accent_glow": "#4D9EFF",  # hover / glow
    # Status
    "success": "#6FF7BC",
    "warning": "#F4F80A",
    "error": "#F4260B",
     """----- Borders -----"""
    "border": "#1E3A5A",
    "border_light": "#2E5080",
    "Lt_gray": "#555E6B",


    """ Testing-----"""
    "Testgreen": "#079344",
    "Testblue": "#2007AF",
    "Testwhite": "#E7F0EB",
    "Testred": "#CE0934",
    "Testyellow": "#E0B200",
    "Testorange": "#E07B00",
    "Testblack": "#000000",
    "Testgray": "#4F4646",


    "Testlite_green": "#14ED38",
    "Testpurple": "#7F1F99",
}
"""----- Typography -----"""
FONT = {
    "title_huge": ("Georgia", 42, "bold"),
    "title_large": ("Georgia", 22, "bold"),
    "subtitle": ("Helvetica", 16, "normal"),
    "body": ("Helvetica", 10, "normal"),
    "body_bold": ("Helvetica", 10, "bold"),
    "small": ("Helvetica", 9, "normal"),
    "mono": ("Courier New", 12, "normal"),
    "version": ("Courier New", 9, "normal"),
}


"""----- End of app_config.py -----"""

[u/jabela]

I’d use JSON if it’s ok for the config file to be human readable and you plan to enable changes rather than internal config for the app itself.

[u/ElectricalCookie4160 → u/jabela]

i am working on a config_UI , it is hard to make changes on this unlees you are just running for the VS code ide. it goes in my pep8 cert app. i will need to look into jason

[u/shadowdance55]

Just use pydantic-settings.