As recently announced on the Google App Engine Blog, the 1.2.5 SDK for Python now includes a GUI for creating, running, and deploying App Engine applications when developing on Windows. We call this the Google App Engine Launcher.

About a year ago, a few of us recognized a need for a client tool to help with App Engine development. In our 20% time, a we wrote a launcher for the Mac. Of course, not all App Engine developers have Macs, so more work was needed. Thus, a new crew of 20%ers set off to write a launcher for our App Engine developers on Windows. Although Google is spread out across many offices around the world, it is surprisingly easy to connect with passionate engineers. For example, this new launcher for Windows has contributions from Dave Symonds in Australia, Mark Dalrymple on the east coast, and more engineers here in Mountain View.

The Windows launcher is written in Python and uses wxPython for its GUI. This means (with a little care) the launcher should work on Linux, and we'd like Linux developers to have the option of using it. Althoug