XCode alternative?

Applescript is a possibility or just do it all in Python:
http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.4/mac/node10.html

 

Xcode is available as an optional package on the installation disks for OS X versions previous to Lion, but if you don't want to use it at all check out separate GUI applications such as Cocoa Dialog or Pashua.

 

If all you want to do is trigger Python scripts from a GUI interface, you can use a macro program like Keyboard Maestro to do this. Just set up a macro for each script and trigger them via the macro palette.

Alternatively, you can just put all of the scripts in ~/Library/Scripts, and they'll appear under the Script menubar item, which you can enable in the preferences for AppleScript Editor.

A third option would be to bake each scripts into a separate application using Platypus, then just launch them like any other app.

 

How about just using Python with Tkinter?